Blog headed off

My blog header has gone!!! Have you seen it? Where are my pictures? My talk of the town heading? I shall have to go and get my deerstalker and tranquillizer gun and head off into the wild blue yonder and track it down. Who hijacked it? Where is it?? Here bloggie, bloggie...here, bloggie....


ps. I love blogging from the sidebar with Blogger  Buddy!

Falling Dollar

They are saying our dollar may fall as low as 40 cents but we are not headed for a recession. Explain that to me ....and when did we have a dollar that was that low and what were the conditions?  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahah!!!

Vista vs XP

 I have had an interesting time with my computers this week and it has set me straight about XP and Vista. I use XP at work but I have a laptop and desktop at home which I was using and they were Vista and Office 2007. I came to Vista with an open mind and quite like the shiny new look. It was irritating me because it kept checking and double checking what I was doing and then the endless updates became a joke. I have had yet another stream of updates tonight. We have an XP laptop and on Tuesday for reasons best known to itself it lost the onboard wifi connection to the Net. I thought it would be easy to get it back. No. I cleaned everything. I checked everything, updated drivers and then did what you do these days...Google. As it turned out I was not alone with this problem but there did not seem to be a solution on any of the problems. The two I tried just didn't work. So then I did a clean install to no avail and as I did I suddenly thought that XP just was old hat. I re established the connection with a USB wifi adaptor and it's fine but a bit silly on a laptop. So now I use that laptop for my work things because I don't really need the Net for that. I was relieved to get back onto Vista. Vista does weirdo things like uninstall my supposedly compatible printer which is highly annoying but it fixes things up pretty quickly. I like how it looks and I like how it is set up for use. I accept it is trying to help people and builds in security against malicious damage and inadvertent absentmindedness on the part of the user. By and large it is very flexible and Office 2007 allows me to produce things which have a wow factor and make me look good. My previous opinion was that XP was better but when I had connection problems with Vista it had the whole lot sorted out within half and hour or less and the thing is, when it goes wrong on Vista, the help is somehow there to get the problem resolved quickly. The other criticism I have heard is that it won't run old programmes. I have some ancient software and it runs perfectly well as does the new software. There is not a programme I have had a problem with and I have not had to abandon any of my software that I like.

World loves Obama

World loves Obama - but they can't vote | The Australian

For them, Senator Obama represents "a young, hopeful, multiracial society, an international creative child of Europe; useful, energetic".

I think perhaps that the criticism of us in America is unwarranted. There seems to be a belief, according to this article, that we don't actually know what we are talking about. The world is very clued up politically at the moment and so it should be. We need to be clued up. We have woken up to ourselves and that can only further us. So we have done our homework and we have done a lot of thinking and discussing. This is as a result of having first Hillary Clinton there as a candidate and now Barack Obama. He is American. We know he is American but he at least represents an intelligent, animated, thoughtful, international and modern America. He is refreshing. He is also very inspiring. What America needs to know from us is that he has the capacity to change the image of America and already has. America needs a different image internationally because although we have good ties and relations with a lot of Americans, its image internationally  is not a good one and that is not because of its people , it is because of its government. We see Barack Obama as someone we can relate to and talk to and his popularity spans all age groups. That is pretty amazing.

Bleak October for local market - ABC News

Bleak October for local market - ABC News

"It has been one of the worst months on record for the Australian share market."

I think we have worked that out. We have all been scrambling trying to work out how to deal with it. The article at least gives a good run down on the state of play. It is so incredibly hard for people with shares to decide the best course of action at the current time and of course, it is based on intestinal fortitude.

Un petit coucou du bout du monde

Juste un petit coucou de mon outil Pote Blogger pour vous dire un petit bonjour du bout du monde!

Windows Live Writer

It has taken me all evening to set up Live Writer. All evening? Not quite, but a very long time. I had to load the live writer extension into Firefox and then join Windows Live services. Do I need Hotmail? No. Do I need chat? No. Do I need another photo gathering spot? No. There are lots of the services I do not need. I am using the Live email and I really like the interface. It imported my stuff from Windows Mail and I am really happy with that and how it works. Then I have had to set my blogs up into Live Writer. That all takes time. I used to use Blog It and loved that because it was so simple. It doesn't work with Firefox 3. Then I had all sorts of issues with inline spell checkers. Not any more!! I can blog just as I did on Blog it...only it's far fancier. I tried ScribeFire and that was pretty good, but the spelling was erratic and the photo posting I didn't ever master. I added Zemanta and that has some very useful features and can be really helpful when you want to read around a topic or find pictures. So this is Live Writer and even though I have taken such a long time to get it going I am breathing a sigh of relief because my spelling is no longer up the creek, the interface is very nice indeed and it is a piece of cake swapping between blogs. It also has some nice features which I look forward to exploring. What I do want is justification. I like nice straight edges on my posts!!

Head boy delivers valedictory spray

 Head boy delivers valedictory spray | The Australian

One student filmed the speech, which was posted on YouTube.

Is that what this is all about? Stuff and nonsense from  the privileged so they can make a note of themselves on You Tube...the personal coast to others is pretty high and it is rather self indulgent to use any platform to further ones own online profile.

Teachers set the recording straight

About time teachers set the record straight and used their humour. About time more people put FUN back into life. This was also in my email box and I do not know if it is true or not. It's hilarious!

This is the message that the a High School  in California staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. This is the actual answering machine message for the school. This came about because they implemented a policy requiring students and parents to be responsible for their children's absences and missing homework. The school and teachers are being sued by parents who want their children's failing grades changed to passing grades - even though those children were absent 15-30 times during the semester and did not complete enough school work to pass their classes.
 
The outgoing message:
 
Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:
 
To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1
 
To make excuses for why your child did not do his work - Press 2
 
To complain about what we do - Press 3
 
To swear at staff members - Press 4
 
To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5
 
If you want us to raise your child - Press 6
 
If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7
 
To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8
 
To complain about bus transportation - Press 9
 
To complain about school lunches - Press 0
 
If you realize this is the real world and your child must be Accountable and responsible for his/her own behaviour, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!
 
If you want this in another language, move to a country that speaks it.

More Scams

Just been to my email box to try the Live Writer set up...still working on that! In the meantime I won't bore you with the whole email but this one purportedly comes from Microsoft. I don't think so:

You are advised to contact your fiduciary agent with the following details
to avoid unnecessary delays and complications.


1. Your full names

2. Sex

3. Your address

4. Your country

5. Nationality

6. Your fax

7. Home phone number

8. Mobile phone number

9. Occupation

10. Your age.

11. Your batch number

12. Your ref: number.

13. Your lucky winning number

14. Mode of fund reception......courier.....or.....bank transfer?


Due to mixed up in some numbers and names and for the purpose of
confidentiality, be advised to keep this award notification as secret from
public notice until your claim has been processed and your prize money
remitted to your designated bank account as this is part of precautionary
measures to avoid double claim or misuse of this program by some social
miscreants. Hence, your prize award winning is confidential as our winners
are at liberty to remain completely anonymous until payment is effected.
Congratulations once more from all members and staff of this program.
Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.

Sincerely,
Dr. Agnes palmer
Microsoft Promotion director

CONGRATULATION'S YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS WON!!!

Windows Live Writer

As usual...I am at the stage where I have no idea what I am doing. I put the Live Writer extension onto Firefox...and it would be good if I could see it. So now I am installing Live Writer via Windows Live Installer...will that make the Firefox extension work? Who knows. I'll find out. In the meantime, Blogger Buddy in my Vista Sidebar has quickly become my best friend. When they make it this easy I can drivel on to my heart's content!

Update: You'll be pleased to know that signing in with the secret letter code in Windows Live took me at least 6 goes and I am disappointed to find that the spelling nonsense is still as bad as ever. I have been doing everything because I have blogged for a while...these spelling changes are mighty annoying because people will think I do not check. I blog. I check. I spellcheck and then I see my post is full of errors. It was never like this with Blog It and it doesn't happen on Wordpress blogs. So I still don't have the Live Writer going but shall carry on my merry path discovering how to get it going. That it is taking me this long tells me it is not Blog It and not ScribeFire.

Blogger Buddy

While I am trying to sort out Windows Live Writer...I am currently blogging from the Blogger Buddy on Window's Sidebar in Vista. It is the teensiest, dinkiest thing! Works perfectly well though!

Youths kill researcher to get to Adelaide

Image via Wikipedia"(I) saw (one of the youths) pick the guy up from the ground and turn him upside down and drop him onto the footpath," the youth said in a witness statement.

The world has lost a talented researcher and children have lost a father. Presumably there is a mother there somewhere. The family must be heart broken at such an extreme , violent crime just to get the man's wallet and mobile for a trip to Adelaide for someone's birthday. Four of the youths have had a pre trial committal hearing.It appears to be callous. Mindless. Completely over the top and now this family has to deal with the fallout. It would have been easier for the youths to borrow the money or even get some short duration part time work. It is very , very difficult to rationalise this because the behaviour is seemingly totally irrational. I am deeply sorry for the family but I also fear for us all as we just go about our daily business. I congratulate the journalist for keeping this so factual and clear.

Media Madness

Pretty unfortunate juxtpositon of image to text.

Manuel Uribe gets married

He may have had to haveen be carried by a crane on his bed, but at 43 the fattest man in the world 2007 has  married and seems to be finally on the road to happiness. The wedding breakfast was low in calories, his new wife, Claudia Solis, will probably keep him on the right path and the loss of  230 kilos tends to suggest he has finally made the decision to live. It has been televised and I should like to think that the country will stay behind him and get him the help he so desperately needs so that he can get off that darn bed and just walk around and be a normal, happy person. In a way it's good it's going along slowly because he will have some massive psychological adjustments to come back to a life where he can just walk around and be free. The freedom to go shopping, for walks in the park, a day at the beach...trip to the cinema. I can't wait to see that part of his future televised. maybe The Biggest Loser can pick him up and mentor him.

Free Uni Wi-Fi threathened

Image via WikipediaShe pointed to recent research by German online traffic management company iPoque that found 57 per cent of all Australian internet traffic was generated by peer-to-peer networks, which contain mainly pirated content.

 The article points to a worrying trend that the University of NSW is prepared to go public about in this article. Firstly, the free wi-fi which would be provided for reasons of equity is being used for illegal downloads, for games and music downloads and for things which are not related to study. So our uni students don't have their priorities right. It's about what they can get away with. There are some heavy penalties described in the article but I can imagine our uni students just chucking a wobbly and saying, oh well, I just won't study then. That's how crooked the thinking is. Then there will be the argument they cannot get their work done because the internet access is cut off. It's interesting there are internatinal statisitics here and it is making us look like self serving fools. The law is for eeveryone else but not me. We shall pay a high price for this time of thinking and it's unfortunate to see the lengths to which we will go to avoid study.

Fence Paling Brawl

Image via WikipediaA middle-aged woman also was removed from the area amid fears she could re-start the violence, police said.

What is the world coming to? Now we have people of a certain age brandishing weapons and brawling! They used to be having nanna naps and a pot of tea. In this brawl in Sydney they were using fence palings, baseball bats and glass bottles. There is a lot to be said for plastic and good neighbout fences.

Mr. Bush wants us to recommit.

Image via Wikipedia"As we focus on responses to our short-term challenges, our nations must also recommit to the fundamentals of long-term economic growth - free markets, free enterprise and free trade," Mr Bush said.

I don't think so. Judging by the article, no one else thinks so either. We need an international response and the best financial brains in the world to work this lot out. I should like to think we have sufficient brainpower on the planet to haul us out of this but it will take a complete commitment to international co operation to build some solid , global financial foundations so going down the old road is out of the question.

Lamborghini for Italian Police

Image via Wikipedia

Aren't we going to be drooling and aren't these cops going to be the coolest cops on the planet! The photo with the article is just superb. Over 350, 000 dollars of cop car with a 560 HP engine and top speed of 325 kilometres per hour. Can we have one?

Poor Preparation and Planning

Image via Wikipedia

"[There is] underfunding, under investment by Government to cope with any increasing need," she said. 

This article about the baby boom pushing hospital faciltities to the limit is yet another indication we just do not have the planning required to allow our services to operate well and safely. Some people might be saying now, what services?  Australia's population has grown quite quickly recently but no real planning has been put into the infrastructure and services needed to accommodate all these new people. Our public transport is not adequate. We need services down south of Adelaide and there is talk about how hard it is to build a bridge over a river. People have been building bridges over rivers for centuries. Then bus services have been cut so you might have to wait an hour to get another bus and our Expressway runs one way and then changes direction. We do not have sufficient water to cope with the new arrivals whether they are born here or come from overseas and we do not have enough proper hospital beds and adequate facilities. We are running out of doctors in critical areas and some people just do not have water and are in the position they cannot wash very much. At some stage state and federal governments have to work the planning out and prepare the way to accommodate all these extra people. Some have nowhere to live. The housing shortage is yet another problem. Every city in Australia has big problems and then the country areas are suffering so badly some of them.So we can carry on like this and continue to break down or we can get a plan in place.

Banana Plants in her Knickers

Image via WikipediaSuspecting she was concealing something on her body, a female officer frisked her and found she was concealing three banana plants in her underpants.

 

I am speechless. How could you sit on a plane from Samoa with banana plants in your knickers and why would you? We have plenty of bananas here and they are good bananas. We even have choices. I'd hate to stuff banana plants in my undies and go on a long journey. The mind just boggles.

Graffiti man takes the Plunge

Image via Wikipedia

I don't mind graffiti art. It can make some otherwise very drab places quite interesting and some graffiti artists make  interesting and different political and/or artistic statements. This lot were at the jetty , though, so it would more likely be the random paint can sloshing which I abhor and we seem to have a lot of it about. For a while there it was working well. We had graffiti painted over and we had paint where it could be washed off. Now they seem to daube brush fences, wood...if it stands still, they slosh random paint marks over it. Why? I get the art. I hate that paint smeared crappy tag stuff. If this guy has broken his pelvis, then a year flat on his stomach will be more than enough punishment. For heaven's sake give him some art lessons while you can.

M. Sarkozy

Image via Wikipedia

He may be a diminutive man, but President Nicolas Sarkozy has a huge carbon footprint, equivalent to that made by 1000 of his fellow French citizens, an ecological magazine said yesterday.

C'est pas bon, M. Le President. Il faut sauvegarder la planète!

S'bloodyhotndry.

We are so not happy. Adelaide turned out a vile day today weatherwise and I could see it on the horizon as I drove into town. The heat does not worry me, but as I drove to town I could see this pall of nasty grey mist blowing over us. Vile. Vile. Vile. Everything was already brown and you could see the trees drying up already. So much for the rain in winter. There is nothing in our soil...and still they are excavating and building houses. No rain. No water. Brown. In 5 minutes Adelaide has turned from green and healthy looking to brown and disgusting. The only htings which didn't mind were the roses. What a magnificent show of roses we had all the way to town. Hutt Steet was hot , dry and incredibly dusty. You couldn't breathe. Too warm, too dry , too windy and too dusty. We had fun inspite of the weather and drank plenty of water to keep hydrated. So when it was my turn to water the garden tonight I could see the damage already done. Our soil is as dry as a bone. We need water. Water to keep the dust down and water to keep things alive.

Sending People to Mars Forever

"At age 30, they are given an opportunity. If they accept, then we train them, at age 35, we send them. At age 65, who knows what advances have taken place. They can retire there, or maybe we can bring them back."

I know what we could do. We could send the convicts there. We could put them on a rocket ship, send them off to Mars and just let them get on with it. When they have made a nice place to live , we can look them up and include them in our society again...good idea.

Cybersex a success with oldies

Image via Wikipedia"That old stereotype that you get to a certain age and you don't want to do it any more is not true," she said.

This article about sociologist Sue Malta's research is utterly fascinating. Not only are the oldies techno savvy they are having some liberating and life changing relationships. Her study group is 60-92 years of age. I have been saying for ages that software and games companies ought to be looking at more and varied applications to suit older people because they are getting right into technology and are being held back by lack of choices and a market which thinks narrow focus applications are what it is about. We are held back technologically by inflexible thinking in terms of what games consoles ,gadgets  can do. The is a whole world of oldies out there waiting for you to wake up. These guys know how to use technology to improve their lives and bring happiness and they are a busy lot!

Government Action on Money Matters

Any government at the moment is in an invidious position. It is just not that easy to work out what to do because things are changing rapidly. They are not as they were and so the courses of action are hard to plot without considerable consultation and consideration and , of course,  no one has time at the moment. They just want it fixed. This whole money mess was a long time in the making and so it is not something which is going to be fixed that easily. Rich people in Russia are just plain losing their fortunes and the domino effect of those sub prime mortgages is  starting to be felt around the world. People are worried, they are frantic and they are losing patience at a time where a calm outlook is of the essence. We can contribute to the situation by being ill advised and reacting wildly. Tough money situations call for tough physical constitutions because they can run you right to the edge. It is better to be steady. The Government is not going to be able to solve everything. No government is because a lot of it is to do with how businesses , trade and financial institutions have been structured since Thatcher, really. A long time.Jobs are starting to go, things are starting to pull back and any government has to concern itself with the best options and they are not going to be able to fix it all nor fix anything too quickly and they know they will be blamed. It is important for us to know how we can help and what our best course of action is to help contribute to a safer journey through this crisis. We are still getting plenty of information about what is occurring but nowhere near enough information about how to help and that needs to be coming at us on almost a daily basis at the moment. The one thing I am grateful for is our journalists are getting right onto the immediate issues and getting them  out there and clarified for us so that we can at least think straight and that, I think, is helping us a lot.

Italian Court Renames Child

It doesn't actually say in the article how the the highest court in Italy came to pronounce judgement on the name and rename the child from Venerdi (Friday) to Georgio (his saint's day name). There must be an awful lot of children out there with ridiculous names who have been the brunt of far too much mirth and mockery who would be grateful of a process whereby other adults could apply to have them renamed. Once you are grown up and you know the issues , you can call yourself what you want and Friday isn't that bad really, but the ruling makes an interesting point.

Cold Call Comfort

Image via Wikipedia

"The most common scam tries to get the receiver to call a premium rate phone line while another - known as vishing or voice phishing - tries to collect personal information over the phone."

After everything this article highlights about the TrueCall device it says at the end there are legal issues to be addressed before it can be used!! So we, the unsuspecting public can be scammed, damned, sucked in and generally ripped off but not have access to a device which would put paid to that? The world is mad. The innocent are not protected and trying to be a normal citizen means you have to be covering your back all the time and then still be the one to say...oh yes, I was stupid. The world is set up to make suckers of us. A good one here is stuff being downloaded onto your mobile phone from a telco which you then have to unsubscribe to if you can find out how. So they charge you while you are using unsolicited apps !!! We are such mugs these days.

Market Mayhem

Just about sums us up , doesn't it? Then there will be an emergency meeting after the US elections So much for emergency. Even that doesn't mean what it used to.. So we are built on a house of cards, poor counsel, lack of boundaries and we have fallen into dysfunction..financially, socially and on the weather front as well. The planet can't keep its act together because we were not operating on reasonable limits. We just kept pushing the envelope...pop...whoosh...weeeeeeee...aaaaah! Some people have worked hard at keeping good values going but they have been pushing against a massive current of deregulation and now in 2008 we are reaping the benefits and facing the consequences. We could think our way out of it now. We could take action but again we are waiting, waiting. It's this waiting and failure to act which has created the confusion and lack of clarity. Maybe people were too conservative and maybe traditions and structures were old hat...Better than this.

Too many drunks in custody

Image via Wikipedia

''We have to make judgement call on a person's behaviour and the likelihood that they will commit an offence.

''Our officers have to consider not only that person's safety but the safety of the whole community.''

If people do not want to be locked up for being drunk and hard to get along with...then don't blame the police and don't put the burden on the police. I am glad the Acting Chief Police Officer had the courage to respond reasonably to the criticisms. Interesting when we have had news of drunken teenagers vandalising and terrorising their neighbourhoods and then we have had other groups go out of control , so many who are picked up for drunk driving and speeding with excessive blood alcohol levels and who put others at risk and spoil a venue or venue for others. It has nothing to do with being a wowser.It has to do with boundaries and the fact we are reluctant to put them in. People often don't have a sense of reasonable behaviour .Some drunks can be quite reasonable and not very difficult but we are increasingly getting aggressive drunken behaviour. Yes, we could use other people and we could spend hours with the drunk...better to put them away and let them get over it and then work with them. We do know we have increasing alcohol consumption and we do know that we have been trying to deal with this. I think we have had enough of unruliness and the police are the ones who get called out. If someone else wants to deal with a group of drunks they would be welcome help. We have to resolve the drinking behaviour but in the meantime we have to deal with it quickly because it is taking us over and the police have a lot of other things to do.

It pays to advertise, but...

Bit of a shame to target one person, but this article shows just how au courant everyone is becoming with the latest technologies and that they cannot be used to brag or have one over on someone. I don't understand why he advertised his day off, but he must have had his reasons and his capacity to accept being sprung is a little heretic, but he probably thought it was a normal response to such a situation. New technologies are creating new language uses so I wouldn't hold it too much against him that his response to a boss seems a bit too informal. I think that part of it was in good spirit. Why, oh why would you advertise like that? We all have an online profile and we need to be aware that people know it's there. I guess this one you look upon as a learning curve.

NZ girl falls on power line

"A 16-year-old girl is in a critical condition in an Auckland hospital after receiving a massive electric shock from a 33,000 volt power line."

The worst thing about this story is the girl appears to have done this to herself and I am so glad she is alive. It goes to show just how alert the people who live around the power station are and how quickly medical help was given to her so that she could be given this chance to survive. She had been in the hotel opposite and then appears to have broken into the power station. It is such high risk behaviour and you have to wonder why. We are having trouble with power stations too and it's something which needs addressing as a matter of urgency so we can make them inaccessible to unauthorized entry

Students behaving badly

Well, this story has had a good airing and it was the talk of the town here because we are coming up to that time of the year too. The behaviour comes from all sorts of students. Radio stations have come into their own because they open up the topics for debate and allow everyone to have their say so all points of view are heard. In this way there is an escape valve for different crises and some valid discussion comes out of it. Radio announcers are becoming dab hands at looking at all the angles and getting both an airing of opinions and then possible resolutions. Newspapers are getting good at delivering the facts. So anyone stuck in the middle of a crisis, as this school is, has plenty to draw on to help resolve the matter and they know they are not alone. In Adelaide we were talking about how various schools have tried to adopt different approaches to the end of year 12 in order to get a fresh approach and put this well worn behaviour to rest. Looking at the positives and reflecting on the time at school. It's in its early stages but some of the ideas sound good. The truth is what this article says. There are students behaving badly who completely blot out the good work of others and the tone of any event. It ought to be about finishing school and getting ready for exams. It's not about scaring the daylights out of your neighbourhood like a rerun of any daft, anti social behaviour from around the world. Someone started this. Someone got it going and it would be good if they were found and dealt with. It is great to see the school supported and we were more than in favour of anyone who was breaking the law to be charged. Students , like anyone else, need to know we have boundaries and laws and the other students will then be comforted . That is what a community is about. Upholding community values.

Does retail therapy work??

I know image is everything, but we are in the middle of a financial meltdown and people are hitting the wall. I cannot imagine it would go down well that Sarah Palin has spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars on making herself over, even if the things are likely to go to charity afterwards. If the Americans need Sarah Palin to be done over in order to give her a chance then I think they have been done over. Okay, so people have contributed to Republican coffers for the campaign. Do they actually expect that money to be spent on frippery? Maybe they do. Maybe we have become so vain we won't look into the contents unless the packaging looks good. Shiny! I look forward to the day where we have campaigns which run on substance and content. Women of substance are really something we could all do with. Where are they? We used to have them. That said, I have to confess this has been an interesting election. With Mr. Obama rightfully taking time out to visit his ailing Grandma and Sarah Palin spotlighted for doing the sterotypical thing of breaking the bank balance with retail therapy, you just never know what is going to turn up this election. Two weeks!

Monstrous Mother Drink

Image via Wikipedia

It advertises itself as a"a mother of a taurine, caffeine and guarana hit." The only bull in this is what is on the can and in it. A can of  MOTHER (complete with Gothic lettering) delivers 160mg of caffeine and is best drunk "freeze your nuts off cold." It gets better. "So now, when a mate turns up with a wussy-sized can, you can raise your MOTHER up and say 'did yours come with a man-bag?'" It does print a logical and routine worded warning and it ought to have stopped there, but no. "Warning! High caffeine content...ok, we know that's why you are drinking it but our lame legal guys made us warn you not to feed this to kids,up the duff women or the weak who just can't tolerate it."

Up the duff women??? Who talks like that? What age group and background? Come on, we have been doing all this stuff about image and the image of women...but what does it say about men that they need to be fed this bull to buy a caffeine saturated drink?  Man bags...up the duff women...freeze you nuts off. It's laughable. Soft drink for soft heads.

Crime down in SA

According to this report our crime levels are the lowest since 1996. Bit odd really since we do not feel as safe, the police are out more often, the tyres and sirens are squealing and we are saying things like - I wouldn't go there at night. It used to be Hindley Street youd' be a bit worried about and you'd plan the outing if you went there at night. Now we cross off a lot of places and include them as day time only visits. More things are being stolen, more people are being attacked, most of us feel unsafe...so the crime may be down but we are not feeling secure. Perhaps we have imagined it all?

Year 12 Muck Up Day

"In the case of the actual incident on the street, it was pretty bad, we have probably been worse, but it was pretty reckless smashing bottles and pulling out a couple of letter boxes."

Schools here seem to have calmed down and the students appear to be more responsive to the way they have made their schools and neighbourhoods feel. Wrecking stuff and vandalising is ridiculous. It is not a celebration. So I guess we are seeing the influences which work on students and they are generally games , film and music driven. They are not in a co operative, balanced and community spirited frame of mind. The school appears to have shut things down so that the students have no rewards for their anti social behaviour. The students seem to be in combat , destructo mode and that is very odd. They probably don't realise they can trade on the name of a good school. What they appear to have said seems like they are just basically very vandalistic at heart and I am sure they have neither been brought up nor educated to be like that so it is the other influences which shape this combat behaviour. The good thing is they are prepared to blame and yet that blame will not change them. They are who they are and they choose to scare the wits out of their neighbourhood. The neighbours seem to have been quite frightened. Nothing like this should be overlooked. It is time to put some real learning into these students so that they might actually understand their choices are what drives these behaviours.

High Teenage Pregnancy Rates

We have higher than the OECD average in teenage pregnancy rates. I thought we had a problem with male fertility? If you read the article we are actually trailing behind quite well in a number of areas. We need to liven up.

Puppy Mistreated

"The callousness of the alleged actions had shocked police, he said."

I would be as horrified and sickened as anyone else because I love dogs. Love them. All my disgust, though, is not going to fix this problem we seem to have with people really damaging and hurting each other and animals. It is disturbing behaviour and we, as a society, have created it. Maybe these people want to sicken us. That is what they want. Our disgust and horror. So why do we create people like this? We have to front up and try and work this out because I do not want to read another story like this. There is talk that this kind of behaviour comes from psychopaths. Again, this will not stop it. The labelling might help us to process it but we will not change it unless we understand what is going on and it will take better experts than I and it is so wrong for the police to have to be confronted with this kind of behaviour on a regular basis. In the end they will saturate and walk off from the job. How will that help? If you look at Maslow's Hierarchy of needs and the other information on this site, you can see quite easily we are failing at the attachment and connectedness stage. These people have no capacity to connect, relate and affiliate. It's the bonding and  developing of attachment which is dreadfully missing. So now we really need to get some experts onto this to stop us from doing whatever we are doing to create people who have no capacity to nurture and care.

Youths Attack Media

"They assaulted seven students and two teachers before smashing windows and doors, causing more than $15,000 in damage as the school went into lockdown."

This is what the ones being tried did. The ones who were outside the court supporting their friends appear to have injured a cameraman and a photographer.  So 5 were tried inside the court and 6 were arrested outside the court and they wonder why we cannot get teachers in Australia. It is just too violent to have peole like that in schools and on the street. Police are asking for witnesses to today's incident to contact Crimestoppers. They are all too aggressive and it makes it very hard to want to help them. There must be a reason why they are so angry. Assaulting people is very anti social and to do that originally in a school makes it a pretty tough environment for lessons to take place in. These students have to be changed so I guess they just have to win the prizes for their behaviour.

Undead organ donors

"MOST organ donors in Australia are not truly dead when their organs are taken and often transplant procedures do not conform with the law, a leading Melbourne doctor has argued."

Okay , it's out there now. Our worst thought...that we are not dead before they harvest bits of us. They wonder why we are loathe to be donors even though we can see the benefits. We accept the benefits. We do not need to be persuaded about what a good idea it is. It's the methods. The procedure. The protocol. The article brings up all the issues and it is good to have it out there even though we might be plugging up our ears and going la lala...la ...la...la...this is not for me. We'll get over it and we'll get through to doctors. We understand they are working under tricky conditions with a tight time schedule.  I have blogged before that I have told my family it is up to them because they will be the ones who have to deal with the reality of it. The dying have not been treated with respect at times. There is a difficulty with dealing with the fact the one you love is going to have bits of them taken away. So we need an intermediary agency like the Red Cross or some such organisation which acts as the bridge between the medical profession and the families. We need people , perhaps, who make organ donation their business and then find the ways and means of dealing with this properly. We do not want the medical hoo-ha. We want to know our needs and wishes are being met and that we are not being hurried off the planet in an ignoble way. We have a right to die in peace and in our own time, but if we wish to be an organ donor then we need a way this can be safely negotiated with our family in a sensitive and professional manner. It would be better through a group that we trust or come to trust. As it stands our worst thoughts are out there now and we'll act or react. Would be better to respond.

We are watering our gardens, yes!

Already our gardens are starting to dry and yes, we did water at the weekend within the restrictions and then we bucketed. Already our plants and pots are drying out and it's a shame. Of course we watered. We haven't wasted water but water usage was bound to go up this weekend because the soil is starting to dry out. Some people are still taking out dead trees from last year which means our shade is gone. That isn't going to help.We have all been saving water during the winter and some of us kept saving shower water too. Our soil is just hopeless and we need to be able to water every day to keep the dust down and the fine bits which float off gum tree flowers.You can't live in a desert.

Mobile Use Damages Sperm

So, the way I see it, men shouldn't sit on warm car seats, they shouldn't yak on their mobiles and they should avoid drinking Adelaide water. The mobile phones appear to be able to do a lot of damage. New Zealanders have the worst sperm quality in the western world so who knows what the Kiwis are doing? This article explains how the radiation can affect sperm and the sort of problems it will cause. We do seem to have a problem with male fertility, not that you would notice around here. There are so many pregnant women it is unbelievable.

Mumps on the increase

If you are late 20s and not fully immunised against mumps beware, be active and get onto it. You do not need mumps as an older person and they have made a come back. You can get information about the disease here, because in school age children it is a notifiable disease and it spreads quite nicely. There is more detailed information here. There is information more suited to adults here. The main thing is to get medical intervention quickly and don't just pass off swollen glands.

Eat kangaroos to help global warming

The sad fact is that many of our Australian species are under threat because of global warming and national apathy. We'd rather build and clear land than care about our animals because you don't make money looking at plants and animals. The antilopine wallaroo is the kangaroo most under threat , so it would be nice if we could actually adopt a practical approach to all of this. Kangaroo meat is very good for you and a healthy alternative to red meat. It does save carbon and there are times when we have too many kangaroos in once place. Our answer is to kill them because they are in the way. We forget we build on their land, we take away their food and we don't consider them at all. We probably would pay more attention if we ate the ones which are surviving . We'd look after them and we'd give them proper places to live.We are not a nation which tolerates fat because we are a hot climate and kangaroo meat is low in fat. I think we need to look at the positives and work with those and avoid our lackadaisical approach which is allowing our native species to dwindle alarmingly.

Drug Dealer Resentenced

"When detectives searched his mother's house they found a huge quantity of drugs – consisting of 8840g of methylamphetamine, 7113 ecstasy tablets, 8347 LSD tabs, 11kg of cannabis and 422g of cocaine – with a street value of $1.2 million.
They also found $246,550 in cash, a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver."

Our DPP had made an appeal which was subsequently upheld. Sorry, but when you are dealing with people like this who are clearly so prepared to deal so much death and misery to people, then I don't think you deal with them, you deal to them. Drugs make a lot of money so they will do whatever it takes to get back to dealing...and then of course there is the significant problem that once they are in the group , they cannot get out. That is something we haven't managed to resolve at this point. I know, taking one off the street will hardly make a dent, but it's the intention and then maybe we do have to do it one at a time for a long time...and we could make good use of our facilities at Baxter and elsewhere to try and break this whole drug thing down. We have to work as a team and keep very clear in our minds what we want to achieve. I am sick and tired of hearing angry , loud, aggressive people screaming out at the Grote Street end of town scaring the living daylights out of everyone...but they will be screaming agony in a few months time and it is so cruel all round.

Job Losses

We can tread this path of doom and gloom and get sucked into the black hole of poorly managed global finances and the rewards we, as normal citizens, will reap form their hair brained schemes or we can hang onto our hats, our dignity and our self respect and think our way  out of this. It might mean we have to consider others. It might mean we have to share. It might mean we have to co operate as a group. There must be ways of managing this so we are not all pushed to the wall. There must be a way of getting through this so we can all manage. Maybe part time work will help. Maybe changing the work day will help. We need to look at our options. I am not going to put up with the fear fest that is for sure. It serves absolutely no useful purpose.

Britt Lapthorne

The Lapthorne family have had yet another tough week but I hope they are heartened by the fact that people are still trying to piece the story together and find more leads. The newspapers have been more supportive of the trauma the family is going through and articles are written to provide some hope and help. The Lapthornes know so little about the brutal death of their daughter, which has been judged to be non violent, and it must be a heart breaking agony for them to carry. The father and brother are going to stay on to see what else they can find out and the police are still trying to find clues and evidence. At least now they are leaving no stone unturned. You see, it could be your daughter, or my daughter. The Lapthornes represent us all because we often have children overseas. By  showing solidarity and showing some support we are buffering them from something they cannot be buffered from... we are there and we are thinking of them.

Wild Dogs Eat Cars

I had a Doberman X who used to have a preference for plastic. I would come home to rubbish bins which had been eaten and plastic pots which had my plants were eaten. She could demolish them ,chew and eat them without any trouble. I obviously didn't let her  when I was home and changed all the plastic in my garden...then she grew out of it. How she digested the stuff I have no idea but she was a strong, happy dog. This man has had his car eaten by wild dogs and about 3 months ago his girlfriend's car was pulled apart and eaten by dogs. It doesn't necessarily mean they are hungry. My dog ate really well...but she was always hungry! These wild dogs must have cast iron stomachs and be very strong.

Google's Gaffe

"With a few mouse clicks, the computer screen scanned across the few hundred metres from Buckingham Palace to Belgrave House, Google's HQ in nearby Buckingham Palace Road ... but it wasn't there."

Prince Philip had been shown Buckingham Palace on Google Earth and then asked if they knew where Google HQ was, the building he and Queen Elizabeth were visiting.... and it was empty land. It wasn't even on their own maps like the rest of us!

British Man kills Wife

It doesn't matter how much he blames Facebook or her, the wife is dead and he killed her. His blaming everything else will not change him. He now is dangerous. He now has no life because no one is safe with him. He did not want her to have anyone else but him. It's a tough run when people break up. It's hard and it's horrible, but people kill others far to readily these days and blame everything but themselves. We need to change. It may be keeping the population of the planet down but we are now a violent , unsafe society with far too many people who see killing as the answer. The answer to what?

Bluegrass and brain surgery.

Image via WikipediaI have watched tele. I have seen surgeons asking people to do things as they rummage through their brains trying to fix things. This is extraordinary  though. The 70 year old played bluegrass through his operation! it sounds like they fixed the tremor in his right hand...and don't we just live in an amazing world? I wish Eddie Adcock such a happy life now. He was amazingly brave.

Making Money on the Stock Market

But when the British authorities banned short-selling on about 30 companies, Mr Cawkwell simply transferred his attention elsewhere.

Okay so short selling is part of the problem. Another thing we have learned. Mr. Calwell is short selling and laughing all the way to the bank.  When you read the article you will know he is selling us short too.

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• Short-selling: problem or solution?

Mick Keelty on Drugs

"It can't be just as simple as saying no to drugs. It has to be more important work in drug education to ensure that future generations are not creating the sort of demand that we have in our country at the moment."

I am glad to see an article on this because the radio report was very good. The past government is gone and the article is a bit confused as to whether it's good Mick Keelty can say these things now or bad. Mick Keelty has worked tirelessly on our drug issues as a police commissioner and he talks a lot of sense. He is in the position to know a lot about supply and demand and how it has changed and he is in the position to hear form police officers about what is really going on out there. The have had some really tough stuff to deal with and their jobs have been dangerous and difficult. Given that Mick Keelty speaks clearly about how he sees it, then we are in a better position to grasp the reality. We are in a better position to do what the article promotes and that is, to stem the causes. To identify the causes and work on that. it gets it out in the open with something decent to discuss and people who are in possession of useful information can contribute to it. We all have to fix this. The quantities coming in are horrific and the damage goes right across our society. We all have to fix it.

Teenager tries to rape older woman twice

You have to wonder at this. Truly. If the facts are as they reported it is unbelievable the boy could go back to the woman’s house and try to rape her again. Was he known to her? Not that that would make it better. He just seems fixated on doing her harm. He really was out to get her and he really was incapable of  stopping himself from being so violent. Is there something wrong with him? He is  16 and she is 51 and she is not able to live safely in her home. It seems random, it seems thoughtless it seems very anti social and it seems to be the sort of thing we have to tolerate. We now have to factor that into our living. It is becoming more and more erratic and people are not safe because we see to have more people behaving in a violent way towards others. No respect. No consideration. Putting him in gaol for 2 years will make him harder. He isn’t safe though. No way. I don’t actually want to increase the number of hardened people we have but we seem to have so many aggressive people now. Comes back to our building blocks of society and what we tolerate and how we bring people up.

Up yesterday, down today.

Image by publik18 via Flickr

Stocks are down again. So much for making money yesterday. We are trying to decide whether to have a hard or soft recession, apparently.  The trampoline fiscal management just doesn't work, does it? Da de da de dum..oops. Oh bugga. Down again. Gotta get up.

Rise in deaths of children at risk

Image via Wikipedia

The article is sobering and given we are supposed to be a good place to live it looks rather grim. The number of deaths in children known to the care agencies has grown the the two main factors are domestic violence and parental substance abuse. Considering our police commissioner was saying we cannot afford to be apathetic about he amount of drugs we are discovering coming into our country then what he said is true. He was saying we can't just keep quoting statistics and then not actually be getting to the root causes of why we need all this stuff. Put that with these child mortality figures and the picture is clearer. Drugs are doing us harm. The police and customs have been doing a great job chasing it all down. But then there is the stuff they don't get and the fact we are bringing it in in vast ...vast...quantities. What is the matter with us. money won't fix that. We need to change our culture and our society. We need to drug proof ourselves and we need to work out why this destructive stuff is so popular. We have made inroads but not enough. We need to be constantly on our toes and even more active. We need to look at how families are in distress and why.We are paying a high price because peole have to work every day with these conditons and these facts. It must be very upsetting to have a job where you are just watching children die.

Out to Lunch?

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaI don't think so! It is a long time since we have been entitled to a one hour lunch break in Austraia and so I think the article is right...the lunch break is dead. One of the reasons is mentioned in the article...people can work through their lunch break so they can go home early, but how many jobs does that apply to? Then we have had the ever increasing casual and short term positions and peopl'es entitlements under those conditions have been curtailed. Then there have been the staffing cutbacks which mean you are working all the time...the email build ups, the phone ringing, the endless accountability forms and then the increased work loads which mean you work through your lunch just to stay ahead. I am actually curious to know what real working conditions are these days because regular work  ours are not it. Regular and sensible breaks are not it. laughing with friends, going out for a walk or a lunch time shop are not it. In town, peole go and get something to eat and then vanish. They are not resting or taking time out. In a French environment it's actually nice to see people reading, sicussing, talking and just taking time out over a decent meal but I think even that is being eroded in France. Profit, not people. To do lists, not lunch times.I'd say we are doing fraught very well.

Toddler drowns in backyard pool

I am not putting a link to the article because this is the second report already of a child drowning in a pool and we haven't started summer and the weather has been variable. It happens too easily. I was chatting with my neighbour last weekend about the other incident and he had a friend who had lost their child under similar circumstances. I remembered when I had taken my daughter at 3 to the beach and she just kept walking out into the water. I thought she was going to stop. She didn't.  She wasn't listening to me asking her to stop. She just kept going. Children are not scared by water. It's not like a spider or a dog or even a stranger.They just do not see the pool or the ocean as a threat. Water mesmerises them. They are drawn to it and it may be part of our genetic make up. Pools, in particular ,are attractive because they are calm, colourful and watery. Children are very tiny so you do not hear them fall in. You really have to literally watch them becasue they are okay and then they are not. It is vital for Australians to learn to swim from an early age and I made sure of that at home because we did have a pool. Even so, you have to watch. We need to be reminding ourselves again that pools and children can be fun but they can bring heartache too. These stories are so upsetting and the parents will be totoally devastated and not because they were negligent.It just happens so easily.

Sister murders sister

I feel so sorry for these parents. Their eldest 20 year old daughter has killed their 18 year old daughter on Friday and why is very unclear. The elder sister is not allowed out on bail and the parents are obviously struggling with this but are supporting their elder daughter. That is pretty remarkable stuff. We seem to have some horrible things going wrong with young people in Australia and the crimes are odd to say the least. I feel so sorry for the parents. They are holding their heads down and that is not right. They haven't done anything. They now have a life which is painfully and tragically in disarray. I should hope we have people in there helping them work through this so that they can hold their heads up. The burden they carry must be overwhelming. I hope this proceeds very slowly so they can manage whatever it is they will have to manage. The younger daughter appears to have been a happy, optimistic , positive girl. That will make it so much harder to bear.I do not know how you deal with things like this, other than that we all rally and give them some quiet warmth.

Riding under the influence

The sooner they get more women into Mount Isa , the better. I blogged about how the Mayor was encouraging beauty challenged women to come to Mount Isa because they would be made welcome. It had caused a stir internationally and a lot of interest. Well, our Mount Isa friend Malcolm looks like he needs someone to  keep him on the straight and narrow. He has just discovered something most of us wouldn’t now. Riding a horse drunk attracts a stiffer penalty and is legally viewed more seriously than driving your car drunk. Heaven knows why, because a drunk driver is lethal. A drunken horse rider is more likely to slide off the horse. But I imagine it has something to do with our interest in looking after animals. It would be interesting to know how the law came about and why it is harsher than the drink driving law. In the meantime, Malcolm needs to spend his evenings differently perhaps because he was just visiting his sister!

Blogging for Poverty

Nobody should be without a home or food in Australia. Even those who wish to live on the land can live that way if they want to. We used to have a Breakfast Club in Australian primary schools, in particular, which helped bridged the gap for those children who were homeless, but the funding was pulled.Most of our homeless children have homeless parents as well, so the news we might resurrect it is promising. There are those teenagers who couch surf because things go wrong at home or because they make the wrong lifestyle choices, but we also have families living out of cars and that is wrong. When our government first got into power, Kevn Rudd really put the spotlight on homelessness and made his ministers go and see and feel first hand what it was like and who these people were. The few stories which came back were intensely moving. Andrew Denton also focussed on some of our homeless people and that too was a moving show. Then we have had The Choir of Hard Knocks which Jimmy Barnes got going and the people of OzHarvest who work tirelessy to bring food to people. So we can do some great things which make a difference when we want to.Part of the problem is the housing gap. There is no low income housing. Things like lodging and boarding don't really exist here and we have no social etiquette arrangements for it so that it is a safe alternative. We sold a lot of our state funding housing because many of the houses were being vandalised. So I think we have two things to achieve. We need to get food to children who need it. We need to get food to families. Many of us have good incomes and good lifestyles and we are over catered to. For us to have a way of helping others would work because we have that tradition here. Then we have to teach peole how to be lodgers, how to show respect and how to board and not be a problem. Most people wouldn't rent available space because they would fear their home being taken over, being ripped off or violent consequences. That is how it is and it is something we need to fix. We also need to teach people to look after rental accommodation. The prices have sky rocketed so that landlords get professionals as tenants. We need better social skills. Our anything goes lifestyle is bringing a lot of people down and it means some good people and families are living on the street, without proper amenities and food. That is an indictment of our society. We are warm and generous. We need to use that side of our nature to overcome the oppression and hardship which is occurring.

Malcolm Turnbull a-twitter

Good on him for getting on Twitter. Politicians need to get onto the social networking because it is a thing of our time and you don't understand the limits and advantages of various social networks unless you actually use them. They can be quite handy tools. They can be powerful. They have their pitfalls you need to learn to negotiate...and then you need to compare and understand which ones operate positively and which ones do not. We have got pollies and Facebook and MySpace. Facebook works very effectively in terms of its capacity to organise and deliver information. Not enough use is made of it. Twitter can deliver information fast, very fast. We need people who are good at this. Like it or not, social networking is 2008.

Piddling Tourists

"Access to a lake on World Heritage-listed Fraser Island in south-east Queensland may be restricted because it's being damaged by tourists using it as a toilet."

Why? What is the matter with them? There must be a reason for this. Surely they don't go to the island to wee? It doesn't appear to be a problem elsewhere and yes, there are plenty of things to do on Fraser Island besides piddle. 

Peer Punishment

Image via Wikipedia

Peers judging their own is about to be trialled here. We are following a model which has supposed to have met with succes in the US. There is widespread opposition to it as far as I can tell, but I'd rather wait and see. It may just work. The one thing we have to be sure of is that we are having trouble managing the anti social behaviour of teenagers. They are behaving badly big time and we are not doing too well in curbing this behaviour. Maybe their own will have some capacity to deal with them. it is an opportunity to encourage functional teenagers into leadership roles within our community. They may understand better the pressures on their own age group and they may well be able to get through where we fail. Currently it is being trialled in Victoria. We have to do something and we have to be open to ideas which seem to be working. We'll know pretty quickly if it has a good impact or not and by watching teens interact with teens we may well get a better idea of how to help them become more productive and positive.

Qantas

"The air data computer - or inertial reference system - for the Airbus A330-300 sent erroneous information to the flight control computer causing the autopilot to disconnect, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said."

Why? How? This is serious.

Climate Change Affects Great Barrier Reef

Image via Wikipedia

"On the Swain Reefs, in the southern reef, the number of brown booby nests has dropped from 350 in 1975 to less than 30 since 2000."

The Great Barrier Reef is home to about half the world's species of water birds and the report is alarming. Thre are so many birds which are now severely affected and there is no sign that the numbers are picking up or changing. The contrary in fact. The warmer top waters force the food the birds eat further down into the ocean.  This , coupled with the lists today of threatened species across the planet is painting a sad picture of what we have done to our world. We don't seem to be inclined to move very quickly on this and there are all sorts of excuses for not doing so. We have been very destructive as a generation because it is all going into decline in our stay on the planet. So many of our native species are now threatened and we do not seem overly concerned about it. Not enough to make some dramatic changes to allow our planet thrive again.Lots of pigeons and weeds are on the horizon.