Dr. Tim Flannery. I’m yet to see it on AAP or Radioinfo (who are distributing audio), but 2UE’s 7PM news has announced Dr. Flannery as the Australian Of The Year.
Congratulations Tim.
Update 7:08pm: OK, AAP and Radioinfo have caught up. End Update
Samuel
9 comments January 25th, 2007 at 07:02pm
As some of you may know, regular contributor Jey has recently been accepted into the University of Queensland.
I would just like to take this opportunity to congratulate Jey, I hope the next few years of study are prosperous for you, you enjoy living in Queensland, and I also hope that you still find time to contribute comments here.
Samuel
2 comments January 7th, 2007 at 09:58am
Just before 3am this morning, 2UE’s John Kerr chatted with Canberra based astrologer Milton Black, one of the most notable astrologers in the world, about the year ahead. During the conversation they discussed the year ahead for ACT Chief Turnip, and it is with great personal pleasure that I can announce that Milton did not like Mr. Stanhope’s prospects.
John Kerr: What about the man…you’re in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, Mr. Stanhope the Chief Administrator of the ACT…good year for him in ’07?
Milton Black: Uh no, not a particularly good one, and I think a lot of this would be basically because of the findings in the report over the Canberra fire three or four years ago, and also the fact that Canberra seems to be running out of money and it seems to be running out of a lot of water, now it’s not his problem with the water but they are blaming it on the Chief Minister for not preparing dams and using other means of conserving water in the past. But I do feel that’s completely out of his hands too, but his popularity is dropping.
I would say Mr. Stanhope will find it very difficult to maintain his premiership or leadership as the Chief Minister in the next election.
Among Milton’s other predictions on John’s show this morning:
On the international front:
On the national front:
Samuel
2 comments December 31st, 2006 at 05:07am
Here are a few select shots from Christmas 2006.
Christmas dinner: Roast turkey, potato, onion, pumpkin. And for Nattie a special Christmas present, three german style frankfurts.
A closeup of Nattie’s dinner
Nattie having dinner
Nattie sitting in front of the presents under the Christmas tree.
Nattie with Bally
Nattie having some turkey
More turkey for the doggles
Presents from Irene in Brisbane and Charity in Sydney
Pudding!
Message from Santa
A photo of the cupboard under the stairs. The light was off and the flash and focus did a good job.
Nattie waiting for pudding and cream
Christmas pudding on the bench
Nattie having Christmas Pudding
A closeup
The card on the Christmas present from my godparents and godsiblings (I assume that the children of one’s godparents are one’s godsiblings)
The present from my godfamily
After a hard day of eating, sleeping and chasing balls, Nattie needed a sleep.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
Samuel
December 26th, 2006 at 11:11am
The Plain English Campaign’s Plain English Awards for 2006 have been announced.
The “Foot In Mouth” award for a baffling quote by a public figure has been awarded to British supermodel Naomi Campbell for a comment she reportedly made in June.
“I love England, especially the food. There’s nothing I like more than a lovely bowl of pasta.”
Past winners of the award include Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Gere, Alicia Silverstone and Tracey Emin.
Seven “Golden Bulls” have been awarded for gobledegook
Crafts Council of Ireland (CCOI) for a circular letter
The re-writing of the vocabulary of intemporal Irish heritage is a possible vector for submissions on the condition that this transposition is resolutely anchored in the 21st century through a contemporary lens that absolutely avoids drifting into the vernacular.
Germaine Greer for a column in the Guardian
The first attribute of the art object is that it creates a discontinuity between itself and the unsynthesised manifold.
Bury County Court – for a ‘General Form of Judgment or Order’
IT IS ORDERED THAT THE CLAIM BE ADJOURNED GENERALLY WITH PERMISSION TO THE CLAIMANT TO RESTORE TO THE LIST WITHOUT FORMAL APPLICATION NOT LATER THAN 16:00 HOURS ON THE 12TH SEPTEMBER 2006 WHEREUPON THE CLAIM DO STAND STRUCK OUT IF NOT SO RESTORED
Eastleigh Borough Council for a Notice given under the Building Act 1984
Hereby in accordance with the provision of the Building Act 1984, Section 32 declares that the said plans shall be of no effect and accordingly the said Act and the said Building Regulations shall as respects the proposed work have effect as if no plan had been deposited.
Wheale, Thomas, Hodgins plc for a job advertisement
Our client is a pan-European start-up leveraging current cutting edge I.P. (already specified) with an outstanding product/value solutions set. It is literally the right product, in the right place at the right time. by linking high-value disparate legacy systems to achieve connectivity between strategic partners/acquisition targets and/or disparate corporate divisions.
The opportunity exists to be the same (i.e. right person etc. etc) in a growth opportunity funded by private equity capital that hits the ‘sweet-spot’ in major cost driven European markets.
Fife Council for a letter about a change to bin collection dates
It has been brought to our attention that due to changes made to your grey household wastes bin collection dates within your new calendar. Your bin will be emptied week beginning the 20th March 2006, then next collection would not be until the week beginning the 10th April 2006. Thus having to wait 3 weeks for collection.
Therefore we are to provide a normal collection on your normal collection day, week starting the 3rd April and again on your new collection date, week starting the 10th April then there after every 2 weeks.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies for a website document description
While the literature on nonclassical measurement error traditionally relies on the availability of an auxiliary dataset containing correctly measured observations, this paper establishes that the availability of instruments enables the identification of a large class of nonclassical nonlinear errors-in-variables models with continuously distributed variables.
The “Good” awards saw plenty of winners as well, which is a good thing as the aim of the Campaign is to stamp out gobledegook in favour of plain english.
‘Plain English’ category (for the year’s clearest documents)
‘Inside Write’ category (for clear internal government documents – civil servants writing for other civil servants)
Media Awards
Web Award (for the year’s clearest website)
Osborne Award (for services to plain English)
I had a couple entries in the awards, unfortunately they didn’t win, but they were fun to find and I mentioned them earlier in the year, but here they are again for your enjoyment. Firstly the good, in the Plain English Category is a fridge magnet from Actew Corporation and the ACT Government, explaining clearly and concisely the basics of the permanent water restrictions.
Secondly the bad, in the Foot In Mouth category, ACT Chief Turnip Jon Stanhope for this comment:
We cannot continue to sustain a government school system where there are, in the context of the level of expenditure, which we make or investment in education and maintain a school system at that level of under use.
Naturally there were plenty of other entries, Dave Smith shared some with us in July, and the Gobbledygook Of The Week page on the Plain English Campaign website has some more..
For more information about the Plain English Campaign, visit their website www.plainenglish.co.uk, or take a listen to the discussion I had with Dave on the first episode of Samuel’s Persiflage.
Samuel
3 comments December 11th, 2006 at 11:24pm
Here are just a few news stories which are just a tad amusing.
New South Wales Opposition Leader Peter Debnam wants to sell New South Wales Lotteries for about $800 million to help fund the $1 billion water strategy (whatever that may be). Sounds reasonable on the surface, but dig a bit deeper:
NSW Lotteries has sold lottery tickets since 1931. Last year it sold tickets worth more than $1.1 billion, and paid out about $662 million in prizes. Its lotteries have helped to pay for the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge.
That’s a $438 million profit last year, not bad.
Mr Debnam said the privatised company would still be required to pay annual lottery duties of almost $300 million to the Government, and might be required to pay additional taxes to offset the company tax it would begin paying to the Federal Government.
Take out the lottery duties and the profit drops to $138 million per annum, even less once you take out the federal company tax and the state based “additional taxes”.
I’m not a tax expert, so I’m not going to try and calculate what these taxes might cost, but once you take away the operating costs (staff, ticket paper, dedicated communication lines between sales terminals and head office, commissions payable to agents etc etc etc) as well, it’s really not a very profitable company.
Somehow I think Mr. Debnam’s $800 million money grab is either sheer optimism which should never have been mentioned in the company of a journalist, or a blight on Mr. Debnam’s economic credentials.
Based on this multiple, NSW Lotteries, with earnings of $38.6 million this year, could be worth as much as $800 million. But the Opposition expects it to have a much lower value.
Thankfully Mr. Debnam dosn’t think he can get $800 million for the company, but that still leaves the question of why he mentioned the figure in the first place.
***
The Victorian bushfire crisis has engulfed a mountain by the name of “Mount Terrible”. Not surprisingly, journalists are having fun with it, saying things such as “it’s living up to its name”.
I would like to know why it was named Mount Terrible. Did the person who named it have a bad experience there? Or did they know something we could have used before the bushfire crisis?
***
From our good friends at the “funny news presented in a serious manner” Ananova News agency comes the news that a job centre in the UK has banned Christmas decorations in case they offend the unemployed.
Job Centre bans Xmas
A Job Centre has banned Christmas decorations – in case it offends the unemployed.
Area manager of South London Chris Nicol says he doesn’t want to upset benefit claimants who can’t afford tinsel.
His staff are not happy about the decision, reports The Sun.
One worker said: “All the shops and offices around us are happily putting up their Christmas decorations but ours are in the cupboard.
“Most people have complained about the lack of decorations. The twinkling lights and tinsel always seemed to lift people’s spirits. Now we are all glumly sitting in the dark in case someone takes offence.”
Mr Nicol refused to back down and added: “It’s about considering the feelings of people who might not to be able to afford Christmas.
“Because of their circumstances they might not have decorations at home. I don’t think they should have their noses rubbed in it by walking into a Job Centre. I haven’t heard that staff are unhappy but it is impossible to please everyone.”
Not surprisingly, the story has been doing the rounds on talkback. Some of the highlights:
Mr. Nicol: “It’s about considering the feelings of people who might not to be able to afford Christmas.”
Stuart Bocking: “Since when has anyone been able to afford Christmas?”
Mr. Nicol: “I haven’t heard that staff are unhappy but it is impossible to please everyone.”
Mike Jeffreys: “Especially if you’re an idiot!”
Samuel
December 11th, 2006 at 07:29am
It’s 2CA’s 75th Birthday, and they are holding an outside broadcast (and breakfast) from their original location on Giles Street in Kingston until 9am this morning…plenty of fun, prizes and interesting people…I’m about to head down there, and more details can be found in Samuel’s Persiflage #10.
Samuel
November 14th, 2006 at 06:14am
By request, here is the “card” I faxed to John Stanley on Wednesday to congratulate him on his wedding. John spent the first few days of the week in Melbourne with his new wife on a Melbourne Cup honeymoon. John and his wife will take an overseas holiday as a second honeymoon later in the year.
(Click to enlarge)
Samuel
8 comments November 10th, 2006 at 07:44am
Unlike Channel Nine last year, ABC Television are spot on when they claim to be fifty years old…in fact, they are correct to the day.
On the 5th of November 1956, ABN-2 (see, the GST was coming all the way back in the 50s!) started broadcasting, and Robert Menzies (hence “Bob Commences”) said a few words to start the broadcast (well, it was near the start). The Sydney television station started up a mere 13 days before its Melbourne counterpart ABV-2 began, just in time for the Melbourne Olympic Games.
Tonight at 8:30, ABC Television are running a special “50 Years of ABC Television” broadcast, and tomorrow will be running the first of a two part series on “50 Years of ABC Television News”.
The ABC have been nice enough to put their opening blooper show broadcast online, which can be viewed by clicking here for Windows Media Format and here for MPEG4 format.
So, happy birthday ABC Television…and considering one of your more famous “Aunty” shows, I think the following song is in order!
For she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow
For she’s a jolly good fellow (pause), and so say all of us
And so say all of us, and so say all of us
For she’s a jolly good fellow, for she’s a jolly good fellow
For she’s a jolly good fellow (pause), and so say all of us
Samuel
November 5th, 2006 at 06:40pm
Remember back in late September when Leo Laporte was the guest on Samuel’s Persiflage? Well here’s an extract from the transcript:
Leo Laporte: And so I thought, “Boy, you know” … in fact, I think I said it out loud, which was my mistake. “Boy, we really should have a legal podcast with actual attorneys who know this stuff talking about it.” I said it, and the next day I got hundreds of emails from attorneys, saying, “I’ll do it!” (laughing).
Samuel Gordon-Stewart: (Laughing.)
Leo Laporte: So I — I … one of them was very compelling, a woman I had known for years, Denise Howell, who is a very well-known legal blogger, attorney, an expert in IP, Intellectual Property law, and former Counsel with Electronic Frontier Foundation and had — and knows everybody; has a — has a great voice. And I — and she said, “You know, I’d — I’d love to host this, and I will do all the work. I’ll put it together. I’ll edit it.” And … and I said, “Okay, Denise!” (laughing).
Samuel Gordon-Stewart: (Laughing.)
Leo Laporte: And so she’s gone out and pretty much duplicated my equipment setup. She’s — she’s lined up great people. In fact, the first one has Hank Berry, who was the guy who … the — the Counsel, the Legal Counsel, for Napster. I mean, this guy is really an interesting fellow. This … he’s on the panel, but it’s a — a number of different people. He’s now a partner at Hummer Winblad, which is one of the … actually, I guess he’s been at Hummer for a while. He’s a former CEO of Napster, but he’s been at Hummer for … for about six or seven years. They are a venture fund that specializes in software, and they’re great. So Hank knows everything and … and is really gonna’ be a great panelist. That’ll be the first episode, which, depending on when this comes out, will either be out already or out soon.
Samuel Gordon-Stewart: Well, I’m going to try and get this out before the end of September, because I try to do … I try to do one episode of Samuel’s Persiflage each month. That varies, depending on — on my workload. But I’ll try and get it out before the end of the month (laughing); but I’m just thinking that it’s starting to look like it’s going to be the not-quite-September edition.
Leo Laporte: (Laughing.) Well, it’ll be a race between This Week in Law and Samuel’s Persiflage. We’ll see who comes out first.
Well Samuel’s Persiflage came out first by a country mile, and I’m pleased to be able to announce that, at long long last, Leo has released This Week In Law. It looks like episode one came out a couple days ago and is filled with interesting information, including a rather interesting discussion about the Creative Commons licence, which as you may have noticed, is used on this blog.
It’s a pity about the sound quality, but dodgy audio seems to be the norm for the first few episodes of any TWiT.tv podcast…and it looks like the majority of the issues are due to poor recording setups at certain people’s ends…and at one stage it sounds like somebody is snapping pencils in half. I’m sure they’ll work it all out in a couple weeks.
Samuel
October 25th, 2006 at 08:23am
One day I will have to explain how the system I devised for taking Nattie on different walks actually works, and when I do it will be filled with diagrams and explanations, but for now I will just advise you that it has changed slightly.
The majority of walks are based around one or two alternating blocks (with 27 16 blocks potentially making up those blocks), with some other walks being based on streets. The street based walks have, up until recently, been a second stage of the cycle which takes place after the block based walks have been exhausted, the street based walks were devised to provide a break between the end of the block based walks, and the restart of the block based walks. These street based walks were extended in the latest cycle to include all the streets involved in the block based walks, as such the street based walks are now a stage unto themselves rather than a mere “buffer zone” between cycles.
In the current cycle, which started a few weeks ago, Nattie and I decided to split the block based walks into two sections. The previous system involved a walk around the central block, followed by walks around each of the surrounding blocks, followed by a “super block” walk around the perimeter of the aforementioned surrounding blocks, then the same set of walks, but on the opposite side of the road, which are known as extended walks.
The standard and extended walks have now been split into seperate sections, so that we progress around the area of the walkies cycle a bit more rapidly, and see all sections of the area a bit more frequently. We still have the same number of walks, we just don’t get stuck in one area for quite as long at the expense of other areas any more.
The more I write about this, the more I realise that I am going to have to create an explanatory post with diagrams.
Samuel
2 comments October 23rd, 2006 at 08:29am
I become very excited over the release of Ubuntu Linux 5,10, the expenditure „the Breezy of Dachses “. It has a number of improvements over the 5,04 „hoary hedgehog “version, including better menu line, friendlier Startein squirting screen and better multi-language support.
If the educational institute specific Edubuntu release is exciting, it intends for use in the educational institutes which are good thing over this that them seem to be practically perfect for schools inclusively some excellent opened source programs, which do the same, if not better, job than the equivalent programs for commercial ranges of application. With each possible luck should I play with this at the Dickson university once soon and particularly saw, since we have a delimitation on our Windows XP licenses and not really on the increase of the number… the terrible costs included regarding also to intend. The good thing is here the fact that there is a high probability that personnel and class participants finds it to a high degree useful and attached it to wish in more positions, which can only be a good thing.
Financially Shuttleworth, giving supports the attractive people with Ubuntu wegUbuntu CDs and DVDs for free, with free shipping and everything by gazillionaire marking. You can still downloaden it of the Downloadseite, but I ordered some CDs of them, and you can too, by preceding more rüber to the ShipIt side.
Samuel
October 13th, 2006 at 01:56pm
Well in about five minutes it will be the start of Clive Robertson’s four morning stint on 2UE filling in for John Kerr and Stuart Bocking. I’m looking forward to this, Clive is great talent and it should be fun having him on during the wee hours, and I would imagine that 2CC will be pleased with nine hours of sharp-witted, quick-thinking, highly-entertaining presenters with Mike Jeffreys following Clive with the breakfast show.
But it is Friday the 13th, and whilst I don’t usually subscribe to such superstitions, this is a rather unusual Friday the 13th as the digits in today’s date add up to thirteen (1 + 3 + 1 + 0 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 6 = 13). I haven’t verified it, but apparently it is the first time since the days of Genghis Khan that such an anomaly has occurred. This does lead a pesimistic back-of-mind thought that on this particular day it might be wise to be wary of Murphy’s Law…whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
So what could go wrong? Let’s see…2UE decide that Clive doesn’t need a producer and, just like Stuart and John, can answer the phones himself whilst running a radio show…a power surge causes various systems including the phone and the station audio computer to freeze, with the newsroom vacant Clive is the only person left in the building and so he sings to us for hours until one of the breakfast show staff turn up.
John Kerr, taking a flight out of the country today, suddenly finds that the airline have a pilot strike and he is now required to fly the plane…reluctantly John agrees and, due to a navigational error, lands at the North Pole where he is voted in as the new Santa Claus, and is not permitted to return to Australia except for present runs at Christmas.
2UE’s 11am fire drill sees everyone evacuated, including John Laws and the newsroom…a pre-recorded news bulletin is played, and a song scheduled to play after it, followed by an ad break…the chief fire warden accidentally locks the door to 2UE and leaves the key inside, providing 2UE and network stations with dead air for a couple hours while the locksmiths try to open a door which, due to extreme heat, has warped and has to be knocked down by the fire brigade.
When 2UE are finally back on-air, John Stanley proceeds with his “break mirrors and walk under ladders segment”, whilst trying to smash a mirror with a hammer he loses control of the hammer, which flies through the window and knocks out the station manager, who then falls down the stairs where all the staff who are due to be on air in the next 24 hours are standing. John Stanley is required to fill-in until 6PM Saturday, but due to a ladder falling on his head, a producer arranges a new “talking clock” network by dialling the talking clock and putting it to air, which is subsequently picked up by all network stations, but only for a few minutes as Optus D1 melts due to defective protective material, and takes out all Southern Cross network feeds with it.
Mike Frame and Kris McKenzie fill in on 2CC for the next three days whilst Southern Cross arrange a new satellite feed, taking six hours on/six hours off shifts.
At the very least, this proves that my imagination is still active!
Samuel
October 13th, 2006 at 12:00am
When they say “it’s a dog’s life”, they must be referring to Nattie…especially after her relaxing day yesterday. As usual for Nattie she spent most of the day lazing about, and at one stage had a nap next to mum on her bed.
Nattie had a special lunch yesterday, two slices of bacon and two sausages!
Which was followed by a nice drink of water…and a nap.
Samuel
3 comments October 9th, 2006 at 02:16pm
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