No new posts!
I've been posting at John C Dvorak's blog throughout the week. Go check it out. Its fabulous!
I plan to do a few more TV reviews in the coming weeks, time permitting.
‘Racist’ biscuit pulled from shelves
Coles backs down over 'racist ' biscuit - The Age 27/10/09
Supermarket giant Coles will change the name of an in-house brand of biscuits amid claims it is racist.
Coles Spokesman Jim Cooper said the name of the "You'll Love Coles" brand of chocolate and vanilla biscuits, called Creole Creams, will be changed as part of the company-wide rebranding of Coles products.
The name change comes on the back of claims of racism, with the word Creole used to describe a person of mixed European and African ancestry.
"The word Creole comes from a period when people's humanity was measured by the amount of white blood they had in their bloodstream. This is the same kind of thought that underpinned horrific regimes like the Nazis," Sam Watson, the deputy director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland, told brisbanetimes.com.au yesterday.
Is the word 'Creole' really that offensive? It clearly does refer to race, or more specifically skin colour, but is it derogatory? Is this evidence of political correctness overstepping the mark? Personally I don't see what the fuss is about and by being pedantic does more harm to race relations than good.
Man arrested in Dubai for swearing at a policeman – has passport confiscated
'What the f---?' Aussie arrested in Dubai after swearing at policeman - The Age 26/10/09
When Sun McKay was manhandled by a stranger in the arrivals hall at Dubai International Airport, he did what many young Australians would do. He swore.
"This guy in a blue shirt grabbed my wrist quite hard, pulled me towards him and started yelling at me in Arabic, and I just said: 'What the f---?'" Mr McKay said.
Unbeknown to Mr McKay, the man was a plainclothes airport policeman, and the 32-year-old private security consultant had just committed a crime.
Almost a month later, with his passport confiscated, Mr McKay remains stranded in the Emirate awaiting trial on charges of insulting and using inappropriate language to a police officer.
Mr McKay has already spent 15,000 dirham ($4500) on legal fees, with no end in sight.
Good grief. Maybe he should have tried a bribe. That normally works in countries as corrupt as Saudi Arabia.
WWF says oil slick ‘massively contaminating’ fauna in the Timor Sea
Australian oil spill 'contaminating one of world's richest marine wildernesses' - The Guardian 23/10/09
Conservationists warned yesterday that one of Australia's worst off-shore oil spills was killing wildlife and "massively contaminating" one of the world's last great wildnernesses. Amid a fourth attempt to plug the 64-day-old leak at the Montara drilling rig, the slick – which has already spread over an area 10 times the size of London – continued to expand at the rate of 300 barrels of oil a day in an area of the Timor Sea famed for its marine reserves and coral.
A survey by the Worldwide Fund for Nature found dolphins, migratory sea birds, sea snakes and marine turtles were exposed to toxins. The slick has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, of animals.
Since August 21 when there was an accident at the Montara offshore drilling rig's well head, around 403,000 litres of oil have been pumped into the Timor Sea. The rig is owned by the Thai oil company PTTEP.
Why am I reading about this a British publication, you may wonder. Because the Australian media seems not to be interested in this catastrophe. In fact, the aussie media is hardly reporting on it and seem mostly content to reprint AAP , Reuters or indeed the above article on the subject. What of the company that cant seem to plug the leak? They have been recently reward with new licences. This is an absolute outrage and warrants a full investigation of criminal negligence.
Lets all hope the fifth try at plugging the leak is successful.
UK police ’spotter card’ leaked
Spotter cards: What they look like and how they work - The Guardian 25/10/09
This kind of highly confidential document – pictured above – is rarely seen by the public.
These so-called "spotter cards" are issued by police to identify individuals they consider to be potential troublemakers because they have appeared at a number of demonstrations.
The photographs are drawn from police intelligence files. This card was apparently dropped at a demonstration against Britain's largest arms fair in 2005.
Golly. Wouldn't want to be the cop that lost this.
Koran verses appear on Russian baby’s skin
Are religious people this desperate for miracles to fortify their faith? Not all fortunately. I have read a number of Islamic blogs that express scepticism. Well I suppose it's a bit more convincing than a grilled cheese Madonna. A possible non-supernatural explanation here.
BBC delighted with BNP ‘humiliation’
Controversy and chaos but BBC is delighted by BNP leader's 'humiliation' - The Times 23/10/09
The BBC said that it was delighted with the outcome of Question Time last night, insisting that the decision to change the format of the show to focus almost entirely upon Nick Griffin had humiliated the British National Party leader.
But the reaction from viewers suggested that the gamble had not been a complete success, with many of the audience writing on internet messageboards that they felt the programme was one-sided and allowed Mr Griffin to claim that he had been victimised.
Four out of the five questions the panel were asked directly related to the BNP, with the fifth focusing on Jan Moir, the Daily Mail columnist, who attracted more than 20,000 complaints for a piece about Stephen Gately, the deceased Boyzone singer.
For crying out loud, what are the BBC playing at? This thing reeks of a political stunt.
I managed to view the whole program and it was pretty much an EPIC FAIL on all counts. It mostly amounted to politicians waffling on deceptively about their own agenda's while beating up on Griffin at every opportunity. The audience was packed to the rafters with anti-BNCers who looked around angrily whenever anyone clapped Griffin.
The only one who actually tried to take Griffin to task on rational grounds was Bonnie Greer, the black woman strategically placed next to Griffin and, ironically, the only non-politician on the panel.
Griffin presented himself as moderate and patriotic and even came up with a good point on immigration, but was predictably schtum on the BNCs own policies. Interestingly, and rather unconvincingly, he declared that he was no longer a holocaust denier based on some military transmissions he has only just heard about.
In the end, the only ones humiliated are the British public. If this is the quality of debate in Britain, its no wonder the BNC is getting votes.
Dallas cops ticket people for not speaking english
Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said this afternoon that his officers have written at least 39 citations to people over the past three years for not speaking English.
Apologizing publicly to the city's Spanish-speaking community, the chief said all officers and supervisors involved will be investigated for dereliction of duty. All pending citations will be dismissed, and people who paid fines will be reimbursed.
"I was stunned that this would happen," Kunkle said at a news conference.
Good grief. Cant say I'm surprised though. I wonder what they do to people with Australian accents.
Protesters howl for BNP leader’s blood as he appears on TV
In passionate exchanges on the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, a black member of the audience accused Griffin of "completely disgusting" behaviour as he was forced to explain why he had met a Ku Klux Klan leader and attacked Islam.
The BNP leader Nick Griffin was repeatedly pilloried and criticised on the BBC's Question Time tonight when he was dubbed the "Dr Strangelove" of British politics after attempting to claim the mantle of Winston Churchill and struggling to explain his denial of the Holocaust.
Hells bells, just let the guy speak. I congratulate the BBC for having the balls to have him on the show. I find most of what he has to say abhorrent but trying to silence him is an affront to free speech. Let him and all the racists speak up and challenge them on their ideas. I'm sure the guy must have at least one good idea.
Of course, beating the crap out of racist scum in a back alley does have its appeal, especially if you're the target of the malice.
Australians gouged on some Windows 7 versions
Australian customers will have to stump up almost double the US price for some versions of Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system that arrived in Australian stores yesterday.
The company cited taxes, freight costs and currency fluctuations as key reasons that the retail price for full and upgrade versions of its software were substantially higher than in the US.
"We see the same questions being asked about most consumer electronics products," David McLean, Microsoft's regional director of entertainment and devices, said.
Taxes, freight costs and currency fluctuations? What a load of crap. The Aussie dollar is currently 92 US cents! Shipping? Are they using Haliburton to move the stuff? C'mon whats the deal here Microsoft?
Iran and Israel nuke envoys met at conference in Cairo
From haaretz.com
Israeli and Iranian representatives recently took part in a conference in Cairo on nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) said Thursday, but Tehran said the report on the meeting was untrue.
IAEC Spokeswoman Yael Doron, said, however that "no dialogue or interaction" between the Israeli and Iranian representatives took place at the meeting in Cairo in September. She gave no further details.
Interesting. The hawks on both sides must be screaming that this got out. A nuke free zone in the Mid East sounds like a good idea to me. Now, if we can extend that zone around the globe.
Incidentally this ICNND was set up by Kevin Rudd and the conference chaired by...wait for it...Gareth Evans. Clearly they had an opening for a smug git over there.
Giant spider not quite extinct
From Scientific American
"It was surprising to find a giant female Nephila from South Africa in the collection …that did not match any of the described species," Matjaz Kuntner, who is now chair of the Institute of Biology of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and coauthor of the paper, said in a prepared statement.
One of the largest orb-weaving spiders had remained hidden from entomologists in plain sight. The new species of giant golden orb weaver (Nephila komaci), which builds meter-wide webs, entangled a doctoral student who stumbled upon a specimen in a museum collection.
Yeech. I've never liked spiders. I've learnt to tolerate them and not kill them on sight and I accept that they are useful and beautiful creatures, but they are still unnatural and thoroughly EVIL. Any spider that can entrap a full grown student in its web is a spider that SHOULD NOT BE!
TV Review – John Safran’s new show ‘Race Relations’
John Safran may be part narcissist and part wanker, but this Melbourne based aussie Jew has my admiration. He's a genuinely funny guy who has a knack for integrating his politically incorrect deadpan aussie larrakin humour with intelligent and often moral issues that are a 'no go' for most of mainstream media. As with all comedy, its a hit and miss affair, with bits of his previous TV shows (John Safran's Music Jamboree, John Safran vs God and Speaking in Tongues) better than others, but he is most definitely a unique talent. It was only his 'Not the Sunscreen Song' that, for me, really crossed the line into self indulgence.
I must admit that I don't watch much broadcast TV and I hadn't really been exposed to all the supposed hype surrounding the new show, John Safran's Race Relations. In fact I'd completely forgotten to watch or record it and had to obtain the show by other means.
Race Relations, as the name suggests, attempts to disarm and ridicule the barriers that are constructed around race and culture by approaching the subject with cringe inducing humour and humanist good will, and to a large extent he's successful and very funny. I thought the 'pantie experiment' dragged on a bit too long, but his plan to create a 'Jelestinian' via Israeli and Palestinian sperm banks was inspired (Yes we can!).
Its all classic Safran. He continues to smash through traditional television taboos as he did with vs God, leaving a trail of controversial wreckage that the ABC, like with The Chaser, may have to clean up in the face of viewer complaints and the ever moralising media. Seeming to anticipate the coming shitstorm, the ABC's director of television Kim Dalton actually advised conservative viewers not to tune in! Pretty funny stuff and to mine, unprecedented.
Even well before the screening, the predictable Safran outrage had begun.
Curiously today I'm struggling to find an online source condemning the show. In fact, the reports are pretty positive, and there were apparently few viewer complaints. Clearly Kim Dalton's warning was heeded.
In any case I'm looking forward to the remaining shows in the series.
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Rural broadband using TV spectrum whitespace
From Ars Technica
The nation's first wireless broadband network operating in unused TV channel "white spaces" is now live in an unlikely spot—Claudville, Virginia.
Claudville is a small place—only 20,000 people live in the entire county, and only 900 in Claudville proper—and its Blue Ridge Mountain terrain has made Internet access hard to come by. Combine that with a countywide per capita income of $15,574 and its not hard to see why the big ISPs haven't rushed to Claudville.
The system is now up and running, and it was praised today by Rep. Boucher at a House press conference. It's still a limited trial, one that uses white spaces as a backhaul network rather than a means to connect homes and business directly to the Internet. "In the future," says Spectrum Bridge, "it is likely that TV white spaces will also be used to expand connectivity within homes and businesses." But until white spaces radios are ready for deployment, the technology works better when linked to ethernet or WiFi.
This idea has been around for a while now and seems to have some potential. The 'unlicenced' part of the equation is probably not impressing companies that DO licence parts of the spectrum.
Maybe this is something that remote rural communities in Australia could use. Seems to be a good way to overcome expensive wired infrastructure and satellite internet.
More information on the trial here.
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