I just heard you mention that it's two years since US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River. That time really has gone quickly. That was a truly amazing bit of flying by Captain Chesley Sullenberger and his crew, and it was wonderful to be able to hear a good news story about a plane's unplanned return to earth. It is rare that an unexpected landing like that turns out so well, and it's a real credit to the Captain and his crew. Do you think that, in years to come, that landing may come up as a question in TV Quiz Shows?
I remember where I was when the news of that started to come through on the radio. I was driving back to Canberra on the morning of the 16th, which was of course the afternoon of the 15th in New York. It's funny how there are some news events where your exact location and what you were doing at the time can stick in your mind so vividly. I find something similar with talk radio in that I will often remember what I was doing or where I was when a particular discussion was happening. For example, I remember being on a dirt road just outside Canberra one morning when Mike Jeffreys interviewed Doctor Harry Cooper.
Also I would like to thank you John for playing Simon And Garfunkel's "Baby Driver". That's a wonderful song and, like you, I hadn't heard it for ages. Many thanks indeed!
The floods up in Queensland have not only been devastating, but have also been extraordinary in a way which words fail to describe. The footage of the floods really rams home the magnitude of the disaster…and it seems that no matter how much of it I see, I’m still in awe of the destructive force with which Mother Nature has hit our nation, and Queensland in particular.
These two videos feature some of the most amazing footage that has come from this crisis.
I give thanks for the fact that the Brisbane River’s peak was at a lower level than expected. I shudder to think just how much worse this all could have been. It really is more than bad enough as it is.
Mainly for the benefit of people overseas, here’s some information about live online coverage of the devastating floods.
The Seven Network’s coverage, having finished for the night at midnight Eastern Daylight Time, resumes at 5am Eastern (4am Brisbane/6PM UTC/1pm US Eastern/10am US Western) in time for the expected peak of the flood in Brisbane. I’m of the view that Seven’s coverage has been the best of the bunch, and they’ve been streaming from their website http://yahoo7.com.au/news.
ABC News 24 are also streaming and have apparently unlocked their stream for international viewers. http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/. Their content has been good, but as I noted yesterday, I find the graphics package quite distracting and hard on the eyes, and fairly difficult to watch for any length of time.
Others may be streaming, these are just the ones I’ve noticed. Hopefully this is of some help to people.
This certainly is a country of extremes. Floods in parts, fires in others. It’s the country we love and the country we have come to expect, and yet somehow when dreadful natural disasters like these strike, we all not only feel the pain and the shock, but seem to band together for the greater good.
My role on this blog is not to keep you updated on the flood crisis, or the bushfires near Perth. There are many news agencies working around the clock to do that. If you are coming here for updates on the crisis, then I strongly urge you to instead turn to your local TV and radio services. If you are in an affected area, you have my thoughts and prayers.
My role outside this blog is with a commercial television network, working behind the scenes to keep the network going. I hope that this helps people who not only want, but need information about the unfolding crisis. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of other people who are also working in various parts of the media to ensure that information gets to the people who need it. To those people, I salute you.
And to the people who bravely work through the crisis in our emergency services, government agencies, volunteer organisations, and other groups too numerous to name, we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your service.
So, my role on this blog in this crisis. I feel compelled to offer some analysis of the coverage of, and reaction to, the floods by both the media, and the elected officials who are in charge of responding to this crisis.
Radio, across the board, as I understand it, has done what radio does best…provide immediate local information to their broadcast area.
Television has been a bit of a mixed bag. I thought Seven did a great job yesterday, especially with bumping the Tennis over to 7TWO so that they could continue with news on the main channel and on their only analogue channel. Larry Emdur once again proved that he is perfectly capable of anchoring coverage of a crisis and did an outstanding job on Sunrise. The rest of the team also did an outstanding job from what I saw.
Nine did a pretty good job too from what I saw. Apparently they were putting giant “first on nine” watermarks on footage (I didn’t see this, but have been reliably informed that this is what happened) which is a very low act during a crisis, but other than that I was impressed with their coverage. They seemed to have a higher number of phone crosses than Seven which probably allowed them to be a tad more immediate with news, at the expense of the pictures which really rammed home to those of us outside the flood zone just how bad it really is up there.
I’m told that WIN did a special bulletin of their own which is commendable…but I would kindly ask WIN to do something about the offputting “WIN News” square which just feels intrusive and wrong over the top of the current Nine graphics.
ABC TV was an interesting one. In terms of content, they did a stellar job. I need not say more about that as they did a great job. The trouble I had was with the graphics on ABC News 24 which just hurt my eyes to the point that I found it unwatchable…I’m not a fan of the look of that station to begin with as I think the whole design is downright ugly, but when the yellow “live” block is up as well, it’s nauseating. The ticker is the only thing I like about the design of that station…if they bring back the old look or rebuild based on the ticker and less oddly shaped supers, then I’ll be able to deal with it.
Outside of the distracting look of ABC News 24, I must commend them for staying on overnight (even if it’s a looped set of stories), and for dropping regular programming on ABC1 in Queensland for the ongoing news. I do wonder if, at least until analogue television is phased out completely, the main ABC channel should have taken the rolling coverage nationally…but seeing as the other networks were catering for the analogue audience, I’ll let it slide.
Ten however get a smack to the head. For a network which is trying to position itself as a powerhouse of news, yesterday’s lack of effort was embarrassing. I know they were busy with the launch of Eleven, but failing to enter rolling coverage until 5pm is simply unacceptable from any network which wants to be taken seriously when it comes to news.
On to our elected political leaders. The aim here is not to politicise the floods, but to check on the performance of the people in whom we have invested out trust.
I’m normally not a fan of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, but she gets a very large tick in my books today. She has shown her genuine concern and empathy, while remaining somehow composed and in control, and remaining as a strong and calm voice for her people. She is doing very well.
The various Mayors of flood-affected areas are clearly distraught and doing whatever they can to help co-ordinate a response. Many of these people appear to me to be understandable overwhelmed, and I hope that they are receiving all the support they need from larger bodies such as the Queensland government.
Julia Gillard however, has disappointed me. This is the type of event in which I thought her usual calculating approach would serve her and us very well. Alas it hasn’t…at least not in public. I was shocked when I saw her interview on ABC TV last night in which she looked and sounded happy about the floods…she was trying to hold back her smile and came across as if she really did not care. It was embarrassing quite frankly, and I hope that the interview is not seen overseas as it will only serve to make other countries think that we’re a cold and uncompassionate bunch who don’t deserve their support.
Maybe she is doing some good behind the scenes…I truly hope that she is…but if she can’t show even a shred of empathy in public, then she should be sending a minister out to represent the federal government. It’s not whether she cares or not that I care about right now, it’s the message that her body language sent to the people of Queensland last night…if I was in a flood zone right now, I would feel like the federal government did not have my back and that I was reliant on the limited resources of the state government. The federal government needs to instil confidence in Queenslanders, and if Julia can’t do that, then a minister should be doing it instead.
Anyway, I must go and get ready for work. Once again my thoughts and prayers are with those who are ravaged by floods and fires at this time. May you all get through this safely.
From Britain, via the printing presses of The Australian, comes the news that the British authorities taking bloggers, tweeters, and presumably perpetrators of other online activities to court if they make a sponsored comment without noting the fact that it was paid for. The penalty, interestingly, is an “unlimited fine”.
CELEBRITIES who endorse products on Twitter without declaring that they are paid to do so may face court action, the Government’s consumer watchdog said yesterday.
Britain’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has already clamped down on one PR firm which was secretly paying bloggers to talk about products. Now actors, pop stars and TV presenters who “plug” luxury goods to thousands of fans could face similar action under consumer protection laws.
[..]
Although the OFT refuses to discuss specific cases, an official said research showed that people were “very concerned” about the “rules on blogging”, including paid-for adverts masquerading as personal recommendations.
“People shouldn’t be misled,” the official added. “If someone has been paid to advertise a product they should declare it. It’s not specific to celebrities.” If warnings are ignored, the OFT can seek an order that could lead to a criminal prosecution and an unlimited fine.
I’m not convinced that this should be a criminal act. I really think that this is a matter of personal ethics. If I was paid to promote a product, I would want to disclose that the promotion is an advertisement, either through a disclosure or through the nature of the promotion making it blatantly obvious that it’s an advertisement. To the same extent, a paid endorsement is something that I would only be willing to do if I actually liked the product enough to endorse it. As it happens, there are a number of things that I’m happy to endorse without payment…now if the people who are in charge of those things were willing to pay me, that’d be great, but I’d be endorsing their product mainly due to the fact that I like the product, and the payment’s only purpose would be to make the endorsement more regular.
That’s the way I look at it…but I don’t expect anyone else to agree with me or follow those standards. I’m also not sure where you draw the line on this if you do go down the route of regulation. For example, from the article:
Peter Andre, the singer with 669,000 followers, was paid by Costa Coffee to launch their Flat White coffee last year. “At BBC Studio,” Andre wrote in October. “Yeay [sic] they have a Costa Coffee here. Need an espresso.” A spokeswoman for Costa Coffee denied that the company had asked him to tweet.
In this case, the fact that he was paid by Costa Coffee is public knowledge, but tweeting was not part of the contract. That said, he was under contract at the time, so does the tweet count as an advertisement? And if so, how do you fit a disclosure in to a character-limited tweet?
What if Woolworths were to pay a group of shoppers to write on Facebook about the specials in the local store. Sure you’d expect a disclosure from them under these rules, but what if one of their friends notices that apple juice is being given away for one hour only at the local store and notes it on her Facebook page moments before the paid-for Facebookers note it? The unpaid one doesn’t have a disclosure on her page, but has written something which looks identical to the ad written by the paid-for people, so a nasty person goes and dobs her in to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and she, although completely innocent, gets hounded by OFT for days, maybe weeks, due to a coincidence.
And then if this is successful in the online world (note: OFT’s idea of “successful” may differ from mine), why stop there? Why not take the next logical step and apply it to the real world? It’s simple really…the people who absolutely fascinate Today Tonight, the walking-talking advertisement in the shops who recommends products to you as if he or she was a real customer…make them wear tags with fine print on them saying “I am being paid to talk to you about these products”. Defeats the purpose of hiring the person…in fact, it just killed a job.
And in the broadcast world, I’m reminded of the week that I filled in on the breakfast show on 2QN in Deniliquin and the Ford dealer had his live spot discussing a featured car of the day. It was painfully obvious that it was an ad, but it was unscripted and I saw it as my job to try and make it as interesting and compelling as possible, so I tried to have a brief chat with the Ford dealer…add some personality to the spot. As far as I’m concerned, it still seemed like an ad, and was quite obviously an ad, but was a tad more interesting as a result. Under these rules, if I added some personality to the spot rather than just letting the dealer rattle off some car specifications, then I’d expect that I’d have to top and tail the spot with disclosures such as “the following is a paid advertisement for…” and “a brief reminder the what you just heard was a paid advertisement for…” which not only takes up extra air time unnecessarily, but it as boring as the proverbial winged-creature’s droppings and seriously detracts from the effect of the ad.
It would also probably prevent the friendly chat because I wasn’t being paid any extra for it, and nor was the station, so it would be a waste of time and effort if it required the disclosure.
Now I’m not going to argue that people shouldn’t disclose that they’re being paid to promote something, but I believe it’s a matter of personal ethics and depends on the nature of the advertising. I’m personally sceptical of anything that a celebrity endorses unless the “celebrity” is someone that I trust enough to know that they are endorsing a product because they believe in it, not just because they’re being paid to endorse it. But despite this, I think there are times when a disclosure is warranted and times when it is not. The only time that I think the government should be involved is when the claims are fraudulent or deceptive…and ultimately in such a case the person who endorsed the product would have their reputation tarnished just as much as the product.
I just can’t see a good reason to regulate endorsements or advertisements, beyond the existing classification of advertisements such that they can only be broadcast at certain times of the day. But then again, I don’t really see a good reason for our onerous “cash for comment” regulations in this country.
The Australian Medicare system provides a rebate for visits to Optometrists for eye checkups, with a full examination being allowed once every two years, and a partial checkup more often (I think the rule for this is annually, but it might be more often).
Up until recently I was seeing my optometrist once per year in the week leading up to Christmas, with a full examination of my eyes taking place every two years, and a partial examination on the off years. In 2008 however, I completely forgot about my checkup as I was busy with other matters and didn’t see the optometrist until February 2009. Last year I saw the optometrist for my partial checkup in January, and this year I confused the last two years and thought I was due for my full checkup this month. Until today I hadn’t had a chance to make the appointment, so I went in today and found out, to my horror, that Medicare can not cover such a checkup until mid-February, due to my last full checkup having occurred in mid-February of 2009.
Well, that doesn’t work for me as I can’t book that far ahead with certainty due to the fact that my work roster, while somewhat predictable, may not follow the standard rotation through all the way to mid-February and, aside from that, the roster beyond this week was not published when I was at work late last week, and I’d be surprised if more than next week’s roster or, at a stretch, the following week’s roster will be finalised by the time I get in tomorrow.
I would very much like to get back in to the routine of seeing my optometrist in the week leading up to Christmas, and I certainly don’t want to wait until February to see the optometrist as I’m quite certain that I am due for a new prescription for my glasses, and I wish to discuss the idea of contact lenses, and would very much like to do this ASAP, in fact next Tuesday would be very good for me. Now I could, under Medicare, have a partial examination now, and a full one in February, but that seems like a waste of my time and my optometrist’s time, and would probably result in me not having a full examination until December, which would put me a long way behind in my eyecare.
So, on the spot, I decided that it was time to initiate some private-sector, free-market action. I enquired as to:
a) the price of a full examination
b) if the optometrist would be happy to see me as a cash-paying patient rather than a Medicare patient
Not surprisingly the answer to the second question was “yes” and to my surprise, the cost of seeing the Optometrist without the interference of the government’s red tape is a mere $65.
And so, I am now booked in for Tuesday. The entire conversation from the time of my two free-market questions onwards took about a quarter of the time that the conversation did while we were discussing Medicare options.
Now I could, if I am so inclined, return to having Medicare pay for my visits to the optometrist in December, or I could pay by cash and avoid the hassle of all of the government’s rules and regulations. I would also feel better paying on the spot as this money would then go directly to my optometrist, rather than him having to wait for it to arrive in the government’s intermittent bulk payments.
I expect that I will continue to pay with cash. In fact, I see no good reason to return to having Medicare pay for my visits if I can afford to pay for them myself. It is similar to how I did not take government payments while I was unemployed or intermittently employed as I was able to manage my budget to not need the support of the government, and it was my aim to remain independent from government funds for as long as possible.
I see this as an extension of this philosophy, and a way to liberate myself from government regulations which create an unnecessary complication in my life.
I honestly don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier.
This time it’s SBS’ three-part documentary “Immigration Nation” which premiered on Sunday night.
The main aim of this show appears to be to make Australians feel inadequate or guilty for the actions of previous generations, and as usual, the method for achieving this is to re-write history in some rather bizarre and alarmist ways.
My favourite claim from the tripe which aired on Sunday was that the White Australia policy made Japan jealous because they saw themselves as a great power and didn’t like the idea of some insignificant little country stopping them from freely immigrating to said country (question: if Australia was so insignificant and Japan was so great, why would they have wanted to immigrate to Australia?), so over time their jealousy grew and then, as a direct result, World War Two occurred. Yes that’s right, according to this “documentary”, Australia’s immigration policies caused World War Two.
When this documentary, as SBS documentaries tend to do, gets shown in high school classrooms, it will be interesting to see the brighter kids pick up on its direct contradictions with the rest of the curriculum…and then be labelled as “inconsiderate” or “racist” by teachers (welcome to my high school experience, where it was “wrong” to believe anything that the “racist” John Laws said…although I did find one teacher who, whilst disliking John Laws, did agree with him on a number of things…I think he was a closet listener who wouldn’t acknowledge it for fear of alienation by his peers.)
I wasn’t expecting much from a “documentary” which has been running radio ads for some time now which have been doing their best to paint the country as racist…but even I was astounded by this complete revision of history.
There were a number of other pearls of tripe, including some nonsense about Australia being the same as South Africa (there were similarities in legislation, sure, but the two countries were far from being the same) and that restricting immigration from Asia somehow created more of it. There was more, but I can only think of so much of it before I want to start screaming.
I haven’t decided whether I want to watch it next week or not. It would be an interesting exercise in torture, so it will probably depend on whether I am in the mood for some torture by the time it airs next week. If it were on tonight, I’d definitely be giving it a miss.
Seven-time winner of the Indian National Award for the best male playback singer, Kattassery Joseph Yesudas, does not sing in the Indian languages of Assamese, Konkani or Kashmiri.
Yesterday’s shooting in Arizona is undoubtedly a tragedy, the fact that people died is horrible, and that the primary target was an elected representative of the people is horrendous.
I can’t describe how sickened I am by the actions of the shooter. I’m incredibly saddened for the loss of six innocent lives, especially the loss of a 9-year-old girl who attended the event, having recently been elected to her school’s student council, so that she could meet Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). Of particular note is that this girl was born on the day of 9/11, and whilst any loss of innocent life is tragic, the fact that we have lost one of the children who represents the hope of life going on despite the best efforts of terrorists, is even more tragic under the circumstances.
I am incredibly shocked and saddened by all of this, and my heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by this terrible and tragic event.
I’m am very pleased to hear that Mrs. Giffords survived. The initial reports of her demise were horrifying to say the least, and I was incredibly relieved when the hospital announced that she was still alive. The good news is that, although Mrs. Giffords is still in a critical condition, doctors have confirmed that the bullet did not enter both hemispheres of her brain, something which apparently makes her recovery much more likely.
President Obama has called for a moment of slience tomorrow at 11am US Eastern Time (3am Canberra time). I fully intend on honouring this request and I would ask you to join me…if not at 3am, then at some time tomorrow.
With the immediate repercussions of the shooting out of the way, I must express my extreme disappointment with those who have sought to politicise the dreadful event. There have been people trying to blame the right-wing for this, people trying to blame the left-wing for this, people claiming that the US needs tighter (and unconstitutional) gun laws, and even people (Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, I’m looking at you) claiming that freedom of speech is somehow to blame and that people need to take in to account the possible ways that insane people might misinterpret things, before people open their mouth. I mean really, what utter nonsense.
The pure fact of the matter here is that the alleged shooter is nuts. His rambling blogs and videos are enough proof of that.
Loughner was kicked out of Pima Community College following a series of run-ins with school officials and police at the colleges where he frequently caused disruptions in classrooms and elsewhere on campus, according to The Arizona Republic.
The tensions with school officials led to Loughner’s production of a YouTube video in which he declared the college illegal, the newspaper reports.
The college said Loughner could only return if he received mental-health clearance, according to The Arizona Republic.
Loughner is suspected of posting a series of YouTube videos that show a focus on literacy and currency — as well as his distrust in the government.
[..]
“The majority of citizens in the United States of America have never read the United States of America’s Constitution. You don’t have to accept the federalist laws,” the video’s titles say. “In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratifications: the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar. No! I won’t pay debt with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver! No! I won’t trust in god!”
The second United States Constitution? The government controlling minds with grammar? You look at this tripe and “delusional” is about the most favourable description that you can reach.
Then there are the claims about this guy’s affiliations with various groups (which are being described as right-wing but certainly aren’t representative of what the majority of people would view as “right-wing”) which are denying any involvement with him, and books which he claims to like (such as “The Communist Manifesto”, although you’d have to draw a very very long bow to believe that he adheres to that text).
There are a lot more people claiming that he is a right-wing extremist than there are people claiming that he is a left-wing extremist…but they’re both wrong. He is an extremist for sure, but a very sporadic extremist whose views seem to be based on fantasy and delusion.
It’s easy to discount the notion of him being a right-wing extremist based on the fact that he targeted Gabrielle Giffords, a moderate Democrat who voted against Nancy Pelosi (the person who most on the right despise more than any others in the House) for Speaker recently and is a supporter of gun rights.
It’s equally easy to dismiss the idea of the suspect being a left-wing extremist as Mrs. Giffords also supported some of the favoured items of the left including the economic bailouts and Obamacare, and is a pro-choice advocate on abortions.
Neither side of the divide is responsible for this atrocity. The only person responsible is the shooter. A suspect is in custody and, if he is guilty, it’s plainly obvious that his own problems were to blame for this incident, not the actions of others.
On that note, we move on to the argument which has reared its ugly head again: the idea that the US needs to limit gun ownership. Patently absurd. The only thing which gun control does is give the bad guys an unfair advantage as they will continue to trade illegally in guns long after the innocent have been disarmed by the state…and then when the gun supply becomes even more limited (as is the case here in Australia) the bad guys switch to knives and blood-filled syringes. I know that I’d rather face a gun with a gun any day, rather than face a knife or a blood-filled syringe unarmed. It is also worth noting that another person in the crowd shot at the gunman, an action which may have saved lives and quite possibly distracted the gunman from his targets…also of note is the actions of the brave people who tackled and restrained the gunman, and definitely saved lives.
It should also be noted that banning guns is not a solution, nor is gun ownership a problem. If guns were responsible for killing people, Switzerland (with its estimated three million guns in circulation, in a population of just under 8 million) would have the highest gun-related death rate in the world (instead they had 64 deaths or near-deaths as a result of gun-related violence in 2006…if you can find a more up-to-date figure, do let me know…and no, I’m not interested in the imaginary “300” figure dreamt up by anti-gun politicians in that country). Instead they prove my point that an effective standoff is the best defence as people who wish to harm others with guns know that any attempt to do so is likely to end badly for them…unlike a country like Australia where if, hypothetically speaking, a person were to go on a rampage in the Sydney CBD, many dozens of people would be injured before police could react.
Of course I hope and pray that such a thing will never occur, but it only takes one nut with a gun, and the innocent people nearby will be wishing that they had a gun to put an end to the nut’s reign of terror.
I continue to hope and pray for the swift and thorough recovery of all who were injured in the shooting, and I join in the mourning for those whose lives were tragically lost.
If there is one thing which can be learnt from this event, it is that security needs to be more well thought out for politicians’ public events. The fact that civilians were solely responsible for stopping the shooter speaks volumes to the lack of security at this event. This is where the focus should be…not on political point scoring over the alleged actions of one deranged individual.
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.
An email to 2GB and MTR’s C Team: Chris Bowen, Trevor Long and Mark Levy
G’day boys,
I’m not a fan of cold pizza but I have a bit of a dilemma when it comes to reheating it. I don’t really want to heat it in the microwave and have it go all soggy, but I don’t really want to wait for it to reheat in the oven, so usually I end using the microwave, not enjoying the food and remembering to use the oven for the next few occasions.
And as for game shows, Wheel of Fortune was the best. It was so good that I carried it through to my school classes, making the wheel out of a glue stick and driving my teachers nuts. I was absolutely fascinated by The Price Is Right back in the late ’90s and wouldn’t miss an episode. As for kids game shows, Time Masters in the mid ’90s with Andrew Daddo was my favourite, although I think I’m the only person who remembers it because I only ever get blank stares when I bring it up.
Have a great night guys!
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
Update: Another correspondent has emailed The C Team suggesting that reheating a pizza by placing it in a frying pan, straight from the freezer, is a good quick way make sure it’s still hot and crispy. Seems like a good idea to me. End Update
On Thursday I was sitting at work watching the TV news report on yet another mass bird death (or maybe it was a fish death) and in the same breath rehash the words of some government official somewhere speculating on possible reasons for the deaths, as if what he was saying was new and informative when in fact it was exactly what they reported him as saying the previous day, and was pure speculation and totally uninformative.
It was at this point that it struck me: these events are neither related, nor remarkable. Mass animal deaths happen all the time, perhaps not usually with as many in such a short space of time, but whenever you have these intermittent random events, you will necessarily see a momentary spike in them. The fact that there was a momentary spike in mass animal deaths is newsworthy, it is worthy of discussion, and in the places where the deaths occurred, it’s definitely one for the record books…but the hype, the panic, the near headline spot on TV news bulletins in countries where the deaths aren’t even occurring, is not even remotely warranted.
I fell for the hype for a few days. I was wrong.
The other thing which struck me about this on Thursday was that it’s the Qantas syndrome all over again. What I mean by that is that whenever a Qantas plane has some sort of somewhat newsworthy problem (and the amount of danger required to warrant it being a “newsworthy event” for Qantas seems to be less than for other airlines), every other little thing which happens on a Qantas plane over the following two or three weeks becomes somehow related to the original story and “symptomatic of an ongoing dangerous trend” in the media’s eyes…to the point where “air travel industry experts” are called upon to comment on stupid trivial things like a plane’s kitchen’s microwave oven’s lightbulb burning out (example only…but many of the Qantas events which get reported are about as trivial as that).
This bird/fish/whatever death story is the same. Birds die in one spot on New Year’s Eve. It’s a slow news day so the story goes further than it normally would. Fish die nearby, local news people pass it on to the national press who see a connection and suddenly it’s an international story. Birds die elsewhere, and the world’s media assume it’s all connected because the experts don’t have a sane explanation, and then every animal death for the next week is related and becomes global news.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up now (I was tempted to let it slide and just ignore the bird/fish/whatever death story from here on) is twofold:
Firstly, I was wrong to follow the media’s excitement and hype
Secondly, I completely forgot to write a retraction of my hype and excitement and was reminded when I saw a clip of Glenn Beck’s show where he had a similar thought bubble to me and reminded me of another topic.
Towards the end of the clip, Glenn wanders on to the topic of fuel prices (there was a coherent link between the stories, but I’ve forgotten while I’ve been writing this post…watch the clip and you’ll see it) and how a few years ago the media latched on to the story of fuel prices in the US nearing $3 per gallon with much alarm. Now that the prices are at that level again, the media is almost completely silent on the matter (I think I spotted one passing mention in the middle of a not-quite-related story last week).
This reminded me of how, over here, I was filling up my fuel tank a few weeks back when I noticed the price on that day and thought “gee, a couple years back this price would have been enough for a month long session of ranting from the media…where are they now?”. It’s as if the media have moved on to some other topic and are now happy to ignore the fuel prices.
And if that’s the case, it leads me to wonder why they no longer seem to care. Was the fuel price outrage just a distraction from other news? Or is the current lack of outrage and focus on other non-stories (bird deaths, microwave ovens on planes etc) a distraction from the fuel price?
Personally I think it’s neither and that instead, the mainstream media have a short attention span and aren’t very good at following through on stories except when they’ve run out of new stories and need to check up on old ones in order to fill a content quota. Whilst this isn’t a good thing, it does have one almost positive outcome, and that is that with the mainstream media now sidetracked by an imminent royal birth, we should get a rest from all of the unrelated animal death stories…unless a few hundred birds land on the hospital in which the royal birth takes place, in which case we could probably expect a month of both stories blotting out all others.
Some very disturbing news in from Arizona. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (Democrat-Arizona) has been shot in the head and has been rushed to hospital.