Month: January 2009

The best bits – January 25, 2009

Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.

January 25, 2009

Separated at Birth: scorpion guy

The guy on the left, Majed Elmak, holds the world record for “most scorpions in the mouth”. I reckon he’s a dead ringer for my friend James (who does actually read this blog so if you’re going to comment say nice things). Could they be twins?

January 24, 2009

Black spot on clean feed

I’ve said it once. And I’ll say it again. The clean feed is bad for anyone who believes in freedom of speech. I think it’s especially important for Christians – who are one of the driving forces behind the clean feed concept – to know what it is they’re supporting in the case of this policy.

The government’s internet watchdog – ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority) can blacklist whatever they want. It doesn’t have to be “objectionable” content (read child abuse material) – unless the government definition of “child” now extends to an unborn fetus – which would have grand implications for the abortion debate. You see an abortion protest site has just been added to the blacklist – as reported by Crikey. 

This content is hosted outside Australia, outside ACMA’s jurisdiction, so they can’t demand it be taken down or guarded by an age-verification mechanism. They can only add it to the blacklist — and under Conroy’s plan, everything on the blacklist is blocked, secretly, for all Australians. No choice.

“The Government does not view this debate as an argument about freedom of speech,” says Senator Conroy.”

No, of course not. As the government has pointed out, it’s about preventing the exploitation of children. A noble cause. It’s when the government refuses to allow criticism on the policy on the basis that anyone objecting is tacitly approving of the child abuse that the discussion breaks down.

“”Freedom of speech is fundamentally important in a democratic society and there has never been any suggestion that the Australian Government would seek to block political content.” Conroy said here. 

Well yes there has Senator – that’s been the grounds of all the rational objections to your stupid, and technologically flawed, legislation (well that and the fact that it’s unlikely to work and it’s just going to punish everyday users of the Internet… ). 

The abortion site is pretty nasty. While I agree that abortion is one of the great moral debates of our time, I wouldn’t recommend going there. I did. It wasn’t pretty. But that’s not the point. Once “objectionable” includes “things we disagree with” the Liberal Party better make sure their policies are consistent with Labor’s, or they’ll be banned.

January 24, 2009

Spam, spam, spam, bacon, and spam please


My blog is drowning in a sea of spam comments – 140 of them in the last day or so, most promoting wonder drugs and most posted on the garage sailing liveblog post.

January 24, 2009

The best bits – January 24, 2009

January 24, 2009

Late night ramble

We just enjoyed watching Safin v Federer in the third round of the Australian Open. I am a Safin fan, and I like Federer and Robyn is a Federer fan and likes Safin so it was a fun game to watch. It should have gone for longer but I’m glad it didn’t because now it’s late and time for bed. 

But before bed I’d like to plug Chris’s new blog. He’s called it “toph-online” probably because he still wants us to call him “Toph”. Anyway, it’s two days old and he’s mostly blogged about Obama – but who hasn’t mostly blogged about Obama this week. Welcome to the blogosphere Chris. Here’s a cheap plug.

January 23, 2009

Arrested Development

Here’s a great moral question for today… if your child caused you to be thrown into prison would you still love them?

A Canadian  father is faced with that dilemma after his 11 month old baby inadvertently caused his arrest by placing a 911 call while playing with the family phone… from the SMH… this is one baby that will grow up with a significant guilt complex.

“A baby playing with a telephone inadvertently called police to his house in westernmost Canada and to his “very surprised” father’s marijuana-growing operation inside, police say.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded to an emergency 911 call in which the caller hung up without saying a word, Constable Janelle Canning told AFP on Wednesday.

The officers entered the White Rock residence, after knocks at the door went unanswered, she said.

“The father was very surprised to see us and insisted he hadn’t called police,” she said.

“The officers then observed his 11-month-old child playing with a cordless phone, pressing buttons randomly.”

The mystery caller was identified, she said. “It appears the baby called us.”

During a routine search of the house, the officers also uncovered 500 marijuana plants in two locked rooms on the main floor.

The 29-year-old father was arrested and faces charges of production of a controlled substance and mischief. He is to appear in court in April.

The baby boy was removed from the home by the Ministry of Children and Family, and was later released into his mother’s custody.”

So, when this father gets out of jail and his son is in his early teens that’s going to be one awkward reunion.

January 23, 2009

Posted on bail

There’s a list of things you shouldn’t do if you’re a major company that has received a government bailout. At the top of that list is taking out advertisements in major (expensive) publications thanking people for the generosity that was foisted on them by government distribution of tax dollars.

People are pretty unhappy that they have to bail out big companies from their own pockets. So if you book out a full page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal – you’re going to cop some flack. As Chrysler learned the hard way. Here’s a page full of feedback from its blog (which was pulled so this is the google cached version). And here’s a sample…

“Depending on placement, full page ads placed in the Wall Street journal can cost over $200,000, not to mention the other publications where this ad was placed. So, at least a quarter of a million dollars of our money was spent on an ad thanking us for our contribution. A contribution that the majority did not want to make. This ad screams “Hey, look what we are doing with your tax dollars, lol.” This ad is yet another example of frivolous and clueless spending. Thank us by using OUR money to make your company profitable, not with a meaningless ad. As the old saying goes,”Actions speak louder than words.”

January 23, 2009

The best bits – January 23, 2009

Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.

January 23, 2009

For Sale: 82 Metre yacht

Complete with missile launcher and mini submarine. The yacht only has one previous owner, who didn’t even sail it to church on a Sunday – it has its own mosque on board. Low kilometres and government guaranteed sale. It has only had one previous owner. Saddam Hussein.


Here’s the low down from the SMH.

The yacht was built for Saddam 28 years ago, but the Iran-Iraq war – which saw it moved from the southern port of Basra to Saudi Arabia – was among the factors that meant the dictator never savoured its ostentatious facilities.

The vessel became the subject of a legal wrangle when it appeared in the French Riviera city of Nice in autumn 2007, where a British boat dealer tried to sell it for 23.5 million euro ($46.76 million).

January 22, 2009

If at first you secede… try again

The much hyped inauguration of Mr Barack H. Obama went off with just one hitch. There was a mistake in the swearing of the oath. So he did it again, in the Map Room at the Whitehouse. The SMH reports:

“We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday,” said White House Counsel Greg Craig.

“But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time.”

Does this mean that anything President Obama did prior to the second swearing is open for legal challenge? Apparently not.

On Tuesday, Jeffrey Rosen, a US constitutional law expert and professor at George Washington University in Washington, said stumbling over the oath had “no impact. News flash: He’s president”.

Rosen pointed to the 20th amendment of the US Constitution, which provides that the president and vice president’s term begins at noon on January 20th.

“Lots of people have flubbed the oath, perhaps most memorably Chief Justice (William Howard) Taft, who sort of riffed and then made up his own” upon swearing in then-president Herbert Hoover, said Rosen.

But Obama, like our own K-Rudd (at least in this regard) seems to be big on symbolism.

January 22, 2009

Nothing says “sure can” like shuriken

Want to pin up your work in intimidating style? Bring your ninja skills to the cubicle wall with these… they will however set you back $12 (Canadian) for a set of 3. Match them with the aforementioned shuriken fridge magnets for total ninja feng shui.

January 22, 2009

Shirt of the Day: 22 January

Available here. Just $US15.95. Fuzzy Ink – the site in question – seems strangely dedicated to promoting the moustache all year round – not just in Movember.

January 22, 2009

Apologies

To anyone subscribing to my blog who received 29 copies of my google reader links. They were good, but not that good. I’m having some plug-in glitches with my WordPress installation – but hopefully all are ironed out now.

January 22, 2009

Sport’s psychology

Great little article from Paul Sheehan at the SMH on the way the sports invented by a country speaks to its culture and the psychology of its populace…

Can you imagine the Americans coming up with a game where the score was commonly 0-0 or 1-0? Or inventing a game that could be played over five days, with numerous meal breaks, and end in a draw?

It’s actually a promo for the Superbowl, this year featuring an Australian. While Sheehan seems to be lauding the excitement contained in US sport he neglects to mention that the Superbowl is essentially two coaches playing chess with the pieces wearing body armour. Chess has built in timed pauses  in which the players make their moves. The superbowl is the same, only the pauses also allow advertisers to get the best bang for their buck.

January 22, 2009