West Coast Eagles Showbag Special

Goodbye Ben Show Bag Special

6 x Needles (clean)
1g Ice
15 x Ecstasy Pills
Scooner of Unknown Drug Cocktail
1 oz Cannabis
Choice of 2 Eagles themed bongs
15% Rehab Discount Voucher

Real Ben Cousins Gossip Here

10 Questions Meme

The Actors Studio 10 Questions Meme -

1. What is your favorite word?

Discombobulation

2. What is your least favorite word?

John Howard (cheating I know)

3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?

Seeing my kids excited about something.

4. What turns you off?

Hypocrisy

5. What sound or noise do you love?

Heavy Rain.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?

Children screaming when I have a hangover.

7. What is your favorite curse word? *

Bugger, but there is a time and place for each one.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Gardening, Cooking, Nomad,

9. What profession would you not like to do?

Politician

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

I had you fooled for a long time.

Thanks Snoskred

Must Win for Scotland in Georgia Tonight

More Wordless Wednesday

Who Me?

Just Charge the Fine to my Visy Old Boy

Richard Pratt (appropriate name don't you think?) and his company Visy got a little financial wrist slap for their cardboard cartel arrangements with rival Amcor, dreamed up in suburban hotels, bars and parks and communication on prepaid mobil phones to carve up the cardboard packaging market. Pretty sleazy and presented in faux innocence during the trial.

It is about time that Australia had racketeering legislation. There appears to be a culture of anti competitive behaviour in some of the highest levels of Australian Business. Price fixing and other corporate crimes should have jail terms available, not just financial penalties. Not only that but Mr Pratt still owns the company and the CEO who faces a massive fine is still in his job.

What is the message here? If you are rich and powerful, carry on corrupting?

Update: Seems I am in touch with Aussie Values.

At the beginning of the month the PR campaign kicked off with front page coverage in the Weekend Australian and a comprehensive profile in the paper's color magazine. Richard Pratt would cop it on the chin and make admissions in the case that alleged price fixing between his Visy empire and competitors Amcor.

The result, pending the deliberations of the Federal Court, will probably be a fine nudging $40 million, for an offence tipped to have netted the cardboard billionaire something like $700 million. So a good day's work all round.

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel argued that offences of this type should attract a criminal penalty, being a "form of theft and little different from classes of corporate crime that already attract criminal sentences".

It seems that the majority of Australian agree.

A special Roy Morgan Poll conducted on the evenings of Wednesday and Thursday this week found that 66% of all Australians consider that ''price fixing should be a criminal offence with jail penalties''. It only gets worse from there for Mr Pratt.

''If price fixing were a criminal offence, should Mr Pratt be sent to jail or not?'', the 690 respondents were asked. 71% said yes.

The PR campaign has been shredded as comprehensively as one of Mr Pratt's own recycled products.

After The Australian 's package other commentators rounded. Malcolm Maiden pulled no punches in Fairfax:

Visy is guilty of stupidity as well as breaches of the law. And the laws that were broken are not inconsequential: cartels are a cancer in the capitalist system, which stands or falls on the concept of fair competition.

Terry McCrann was blunt in News Limited tabloids:

The public Amcor company and the very private Dick Pratt Visy company conspired to rip-off every single Australian. All 21 million of us, year after year. To the tune of some hundreds of millions of very real dollars.

All of which leaves Prime Minister John Howard and an increasingly lone voice.

I have found Mr Pratt to be a generous Australian. He's been very successful in business and my own dealings with him have always been very positive. And I like him.

One that it now seems is out of step with 70% of his fellow, box buying (beer packaging buying???), Australians.

Go Straight To Jail. Do Not Pass Go Captain Scum Bag.

The Two Johnnies

It's a Tax Bribe from Him and a Tax Bribe from Him.

Thanks Crikey

Goooooooooooooaaaallll!!

Ola Mr Eugenides

Do It Yourself Dentistry Makes a Comeback

Warning Squeamishness Inducing Post


DIY Dentistry is making a comeback in the UK, where some people cannot get access to basic dental services. People are resorting to pliers, chewing gum, superglue and emergency dental kits to manage their rotting teeth and gums. Apparently you cannot enroll an accomplice as they would be deemed to be practising dentistry. It seems that it is OK to practice on yourself.

Pretty sad for such a rich country. We have the same issues here in Australia, where most dental services are private and getting access to dental services can be very challenging. The Labor Party is considering reintroducing some dental services and I imagine demand will significantly exceed supply.

Very scary stuff. No teeth fairies for these guys.

Australian Business Not So Green

Australian businesses are significantly behind the eight ball in adjusting to an eco friendly future of carbon trading, emissions management and environmental controls. If you cannot measure your impacts, you cannot manage them or trade emissions.

A recently published report finds that most companies are struggling to measure greenhouse gases that come from a variety of sources, from factory emissions to waste and vehicle exhausts.

This is a problem because companies emitting large amounts of carbon-dioxide equivalent annually are required to begin reporting next year and for the rest, it will be phased over the following two years. And they're not ready yet!

Add to that another study, reported here, which has found that New Zealand businesses are almost five times greener than their Australian counterparts. The study found that more than half of Australian businesses surveyed don't monitor energy improvement targets.

Working in this field I can agree with this. There is a very large divide between these requirements and the awareness and preparation of business to comply. This is true across a wide range of environmental programmes related to business.

Australia Sells Out on Solar Power

Living in the sunniest country in the world, it always surprised me that there wasn't a solar cell on every house.

Now I know part of the reason why. Those climate change denying, coal loving politicians who run this country just didn't believe in one of the leading technologies underpinning solar power, developed here in Australia and sold to a German company, which has exploited it and is now exporting it back to Australia. This kind of short sighted thinking is very typical of this mob, where Big Coal is King.

Slow Down Micro Penis

The New South Wales Department of Transportation has successfully implemented a speed driving is not cool campaign focussed on young drivers. Featuring people waving their pinkies as a symbol of a small penis, statistics show that the message has hit home.

"Wiggling your pinkie has cut through to that crucial age group of young drivers - they're using it as a way to slow their mates down and stop them acting recklessly on our roads," he said.

Sixty-one per cent of young males surveyed for the research believed the campaign had the power to make them think about their own driving behaviour, he said.

"This campaign is about saving lives - not pride. If it dents a few egos but helps save a life, then it's worth it,"

The reality is that we are all pretty vain.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.

How Slim Whitman killed the Martians

And the Martians killed a lot of A Grade Actors.

Mars Attacks is currently one of Ryan's favourite movies. It is a fantastic spoof science fiction movie with the Martians eventually meeting their match with Slim Whitman yodelling Indian Love Call, which blows up their brains. What the Army and all their technology could not achieve that master Country Music saved the day. It is a B Grade Movie made with an A Grade Cast and associated budget, most of whom are killed by associated ray guns, shrink rays and flying saucers.

The full list of expensive casualties includes.

1. General Casey (Paul Winfield): Incinerated by Red Martian ray gun
2. Dr Ziegler (Jerzy Skolimowski): Incinerated by Martian ray gun off-screen
3. Billy Glenn Norris (Jack Black): Incinerated by Red Martian ray gun
4. Jason Stone (Michael J Fox): Incinerated by Green Martian ray gun off-screen
5. Jerry Ross (Martin Short): Hit in the head with paper weight
6. Martian Girl (Lisa Marie): Shot in the head by Mitch
7. Marsha Dale (Glenn Close): Crushed by falling chandelier
8. Art Land (Jack Nicholson): Killed in building destruction by Martian spaceship
9. Maurice, the French President (Barbet Schroeder): Incinerated by Red Martian ray gun
10. Mr. and Mrs. Norris (Joe Don Baker & O-Lan Jones): Trailer smashed into Sharona's trailer by Martian in a robot.
11. Sharona and Boyfriend (Christina Applegate): Trailer smashed into the Norris' trailer by Martian in a robot.
12. Rude Gambler (Danny DeVito): Incinerated Green by Martian ray gun
13. General Deckner (Rod Steiger): Shrunk by shrink-ray and squished
14. Mitch (Brian Haley): Incinerated by Green Martian ray gun
15. President James Dale (Jack Nicholson): Impaled in the back with robotic Martian arm which ended up being the Martian Flag.
16. Natalie (Sarah Jessica Parker): Killed in flying saucer crash
17. Professor Donald Kessler (Pierce Brosnan): Killed in flying saucer crash

I love the irony of the Americans wanting to make friends with the Martians and the Martians returning the favour by massacring everyone including the US President (twice), the US Congress and the French Parliament. No bad thing I say.

The film was not a commercial success because of the budget for all that high priced talent of $70 million. And if you need to repel some Martians, you could do worse than play this at high decibel.



Go On, You Know You Want To.

Kerb Crawling Outlawed in Scotland

I thought that this is what you did to get home after an especially heavy night in the pub.

I am shocked that there are people with enough money to do this in Scotland.

Tough to Hide in an Identity Parade

You can run but you can't hide. There has to be some benefit to tattoos??

Blog Action Day - The Environment

Sue Blimey put me on to this. She has an excellent informative post on the environment and things that we can do or learn about to make a difference. I work in the environmental management field, advising clients how to do the right thing. I get just as much satisfaction working with kids, planting trees, designing water conservation measures and overall environmental awareness through my work at my kids school.

Listening to Tim Flannery I liked his approach of doing something to make a difference. We can all collectively make a big difference by doing a little such as conserving power, water and other resources, not driving so much, taking public transport.

Here in South Australia, where Tim used to be Head of the SA Museum and had a big impact on the State Government in terms of practical implementation of energy saving, water conserving and solar power technologies, the drought is very real and we are living with the dramatic consequences of changing climate.

We are all obliged to do something or absolutely nothing. Now that would make a difference if we all did nothing for a few days.



Sue also has this commercial from the UK, that I liked. Not too preachy and fairly practical.

Reconciling Howards Reconciliation Revelation Pitch

Howards cynical empty gesture last week to state the bleeding obvious and to place the fact that native Australians were here before whitey on the Australian Constitution after a referendum in which he would be the only person in the universe, capable of leading to a yes vote, is a reflection of just how desperate he has become (apologies for the long sentance). He is now appealling to Toorack Tractor driving affluent types with the not so subtle Here is another great reason not to vote for Kevvie. This fake insincerity makes me want to vomit (virtually), given that he has been leading the government for almost 12 years and not a chirp until 2 days before the election is called. Afterwards he clarified that this is his own personal revelation, no doubt dreamed up in his back yard smoke house in Kirribilli.

No doubt we will be seeing Howard in the Aboriginal Lands campaigning for a fair go for them. More likely it is aimed at his own seat of Bennelong than the Northern Territory. No apology however. We'll have to leave that to somebody else.

Much more reasoned analysis here from Possum.

Staving off defeat in Iraq

A retired American General, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez has blasted the Bushistas for their lame political strategies in Iraq.

The Bush administration has been attacked for its handling of the Iraq war by a top former US general, who said Iraq was a "nightmare with no end in sight".

"The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency, especially the State Department, must shoulder responsibility for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable" the retired General Sanchez told US military reporters.

"There has been a glaring unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders."

General Sanchez focused on the political and military failures in Iraq that helped foment the insurgency - noting, for instance, the disbanding of Saddam Hussein's military forces after the invasion, the US failure to establish rapport with tribal leaders and other critical lapses.

And despite indications that the 30,000-strong surge in forces that George W. Bush ordered in January has shown signs of success in quelling violence, General Sanchez described the effort as a "desperate attempt" to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq.

"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," General Sanchez said.

Nothing new here, just very refreshing.

Two Horse Race - Punters Back Rudd

The Australian Election is almost certain to be called today, finally. The most likely date is November 24. Unlike Gordon Brown, Howard has no choice now and must face the music, though clearly he would not if it was an option, with 70 consecutive polls forecasting gloom and doom for the government.

Not Happy John seem likely to win the 6 week endurance race, with polls out today showing a massive 70 - 30 split in favour of Labor for those under 30 and findings that the fantastically unpopular Workchoices Legislation is especially electorally poisonous. No big surprises. Just bring it on and get it over with. Howard is going to need a lot more than ugly race politics, aboriginal reconciliation promises and threats of scary Union Bosses running the country to win this one.

Russian Cosmonauts Give Up Space Pistol

I usually glaze over gun love stories favoured by a niche market in the blogosphere, but this one caught my interest.

Russian Cosmonauts will go into space for the first time in 20 years without a space pistol. Apparently it was not designed to repel marauding Martians seeking to gain access to space rations, but for self defence if they landed in god forbid, Kansas. The guns are now outdated and have less value than a pop gun in the deadly department. I can imagine that I would back down if had a spaceman wielding a pistol and shouting loudly in Russian however, so perhaps that is enough.

It is understood that instead of the gun, they will be armed with Uranium 232 pellet firing umbrellas favoured by the KGB, a large wooden cudgel, the sound track from Dr Zhivago and pictures of Paris Hilton to deter would be intruders.

Thanks for the Gun Story Mr Englishman

Bash Broon Time

This is an excellent time waster. Look out for the Bay City Rollers.

Making fun of the Scots is always a good source of humour.

Thanks Shades

Smelly Spotty

Who's a Pretty Smelly Boy Then?

One of the disadvantages of being a dog in our family is the wide range of names, not all complimentary, that are used to describe the same dog. Many of Spotty's have the precursor of Smelly. You can imagine.

He is not a great fan of baths, but it does make him tolerable when he gets past his point of no return in the smelly department. What is it with dogs that they like to roll in the smelliest of stuff.

Who's a Pretty Handsome Boy Then?

So who wins the Handsome Boy of the Day Award?

Happy Smelly Photo Hunting Everyone! Hold your noses.

More Saturday Photohunt Sites

photohunt

Why No Option for Website on Google Toolbar Autofill?

Is it just me or am I missing something. Why does Google Toolbar not have an option to include a website. Many sites have the field available to be filled, but it has to be filled manually. I was looking at the Feedburner Ping Page and it filled in the first line of my address. Very annoying and so easy to fix. Why not Google?

At Least They Didn't Throw Bananas

Andrews Symonds was subjected to racial abuse during the 5th One Day International in India.

Like any cricketing centre in India, we would never tolerate this kind of behaviour," Makarand Waingankar, the chief executive of the local Baroda Cricket Association," said. "Racism should not exist in India at all.

"We are a cosmopolitan country, with many religions and dialects living peacefully together. This is the cultural city of Gujarat, and it would be a shame if that was to be spoilt by a few people." The fifth ODI was also marred during Australia's surge to victory when a section of the crowd pelted the playing area with bottles.

The ICC took measures to stamp out racism last year after the South Africa team complained of crowd abuse during their tour of Australia. Under the new code, spectators who are found guilty of racial abuse could face life bans and the venues are subject to fines and the loss of international status.

At least the Australians concentrated on the cricket as they smashed the Indians in the last game yesterday winning the series convincingly. I suppose it is fair in some ways given the Australian teams penchant and world class ability in sledging.

Sport seems to attract this kind of vile racism. Scottish football fans also have a strong track record in this department.

When Mark Walters first played for Rangers, a few (thousand) mindless Celtic fans dressed as chimps and threw bananas on the pitch.

Eighteen years later a vile minority of Airdrie supporters taunting Gretna’s Mathew Berkeley by donning Ku Klux Klan hoods.

There has to be line in the sand with this kind of stuff.

Nearing the End of my Natural Life

After 48 years of never having played the only sport sponsored by Funeral Homes and Prepaid Burial Plans, I am finally breaking down and playing Lawn Bowls for our office fun function this afternoon.

I associate bowls with old geezers. Both my uncle and my grandfather took it up in their retirement. That said, my wife's team won her office competition drinking session last year, so there is hope for me yet.

I suppose it is inevitable that I have to give up tossing the caber and putting the shot some day. I will just have to ease into it gradually. After all there is free beer to mask the impending onset of virtual old age.

There is Nothing as English as a Scotch Egg

The joy of Scotch Eggs is discussed by The Hitch.

As he so eloquently puts it.

Like all scotch eggs it tastes shit , only a Scottish cunt could have come up with the concept.

Funny because it was some English cunt from Fortnum and Mason of all places who figured out this delicacy junk food to inflict on poor unsuspecting snooty customers in 1738. No doubt the Scotch Egg was a joke on Scottish frugality.

My memories of Scotch Eggs was how difficult they are to make, getting the oozy sausage stuff to form around the egg. One of those things that are better to buy from the butcher.

For something genuinely Scottish, I can recommend the following.

Haggis Ingredients

"sheep's stomach bag
1 sheep's pluck - liver, lungs and heart
3 onions
250g beef Suet
150g oatmeal
salt and black pepper
a pinch of cayenne
150mls of stock/gravy


Haggis Cooking Directions:


1. Clean the stomach bag thoroughly and soak overnight. In the morning turn it inside out.

2. Wash the pluck and boil for 1.5 hours, ensuring the windpipe hangs over the pot allowing drainage of the impurities.

3. Mince the heart and lungs and grate half the liver.

4. Chop up the onions and suet.

5. Warm the oatmeal in the oven.

6. Mix all the above together and season with the salt and pepper. Then add the cayenne.

7. Pour over enough of the pluck boiled water to make the mixture watery.

8. Fill the bag with the mixture until it's half full.

9. Press out the air and sew the bag up.

10. Boil for 3 hours (you may need to prick the bag with a wee needle if it looks like blowing up!) without the lid on.

11. Serve with neeps and tatties."

Delicious.

For Afters, Hercules recommends the following. That way you wont remember anything.

Pelargonium Blooms a sign of Spring in Adelaide

Pelargoniums in our Garden Early Morning after the Rain.

One of the early markers of Spring in Adelaide is the sudden arrival of Pelargonium blooms. They are everywhere, gardens, parks and roadsides in a variety of colours and forms. We have them in our garden.

Pelargoniums are cousins of the Geranium and are very robust, particularly given our hot and dry climate. All or ours were grown from branches that I snapped off established plants. We have a wide variety, but I like the lilac and pink ones. They even have some scented varieties, which you just have to walk past to smell.

Some background from Wikipedia.

The first species of Pelargonium known to be cultivated was Pelargonium triste, a native of South Africa. It was probably brought to the botanical garden in Leiden before 1600 on ships which stopped at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1631, the English gardener John Tradescant the elder bought seeds from Rene Morin in Paris and introduced the plant to England. The name Pelargonium was introduced by Johannes Burman in 1738, from Greek πελαργός pelargos = "stork", because part of the flower looked like a stork's beak.

Other than grown for their beauty, species of Pelargonium such as P. graveolens are important in the perfume industry and are cultivated and distilled for its scent. Although scented Pelargonium exist which have smells of citrus, mint, or various fruits, the varieties with rose scents are most commercially important. Pelargonium distillates and absolutes, commonly known as "scented geranium oil" are sometimes used to supplement or adulterate expensive rose oils.

That said, they are lovely for the short time that they flower.

Cross Posted at Sicily Scene

I am ISFP

ISFP - "Artist". Interested in the fine arts. Expression primarily through action or art form. The senses are keener than in other types. 8.8% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

I was bored and did my Stumble Upon Profile and got waylaid and did this for my profile. Having wasted time doing it, I felt obliged to post it. Sorry.

Aussie Citizenship Test Pretty Tricky Mate

Squadron has the scoop on the recently introduced Aussie Citizenship Tests. I would definitely fail.

Rudd Cans Opposition to Death Penalty.

As Australia waits tediously for President for Life John Winston Howard to call the National Plebiscite, minor issues become huge storm in a tea cup issues.

Yesterday, Labor Leader Kevin Rudd carpeted his Foreign Affairs Spokesman Robert McLennan for the temerity of speaking out against the death penalty in South East Asia, despite this being Labor Party Policy and one that Mr Rudd spoke in favour off when he was Foreign Affairs Spokesman.

Methinks a bit of knee jerk and hypocrisy as the anniversary of the Bali Bombings approaches this week and some of those on death row have been convicted of involvement in that tragedy. It is hard to argue one rule for them and another for the Australians on death row in Bali for drug smuggling.

Come On Kevin show some spine. This is the kind of stuff that Captain Pot Calling the Kettle Black Howard and his mosh pit love to exploit. If it is Labor Party policy then stick too it and avoid looking mealy mouthed and reactionary. Many people actually support opposition to the death penalty and it is fine to take the moral high ground and speak out against the barbarity of institutional death penalties.

Spring in Adelaide -An Ice Cream at Largs Jetty

 

More Wordless Wednesday Here

North West Passage - The Last Frontier Opens for Business

European explorers spent centuries searching for a passage through the ice at the top of the world. The Northwest Passage, a shortcut to Asia, proved elusive until about 100 years ago, when Norway's Roald Amundsen completed a three-year journey.

These days, thanks to global warming and a receding ice cover, the voyage is easier to complete with the opening of the North West Passage due to melting ice sheets. Shipping time between London and Tokyo could be cut by a fortnight for at least part of the year.

The Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the Canadian Arctic.

Recent years have seen a marked shrinkage in its ice cover, but this year it was extreme, making passage fully navigable for the first time since monitoring began in 1978.

The ice-covered area has dropped to just around 3 million (m) sq km (1.2m sq miles), about 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006.

There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100, 000 sq km (38,600 sq miles) per year on average, so a drop of 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles) in just one year is extreme.

The Northeast Passage through the Russian Arctic has also seen its ice cover shrink and it currently "remains only partially blocked.

All we have to work out now is who is in charge, which is a real issue.

Che's Capitalist Legacy.

I wonder if we will be trecking to Osama's Tora Bora Cave to buy Osama Mugs and Posters in the future.

After teh Surge a New Hearts and Minds Campaign in Iraq

Some suggestions on why the US Occupation is failing from Political Umpire

At Least There is Still a Use for the Haka

Antipodes in Mourning

Not Your Average Mr Potato Head

Customs in Australia broke up a Mr Potato Head Rave Party when they intercepted a Mr Potato Head Drug Mule filled with ecstasty tablets.

Naughty Mr Potato Head. Not too surprising he was caught. He does look a bit dodgy.

Thanks, the little bit naughty Shrinking Kitty

Sputnik 50 Years On

Beep Beep.....

Listening

Looking

The 50 year anniversary of Sputnik captured my imagination this week as it did for these Sydney Amateur Photographers and Russian Children, with the simplicity and power of what was achieved.

The Canadian-born Harry Messel, professor of physics at the University of Sydney said at the time.

the satellite had no direct military significance at present but its potential is enormous … unless we match Russian technology it will be the end of our present social and economic structure.

Very true. I think some of the current ideas about going to Mars and the idea of inter planetary human civilisations are a bit loopy and best left to Star Wars and the like. How about spending some of the money for this technology on solutions to make our current living environment better and more sustainable.

Photohunt Theme: Curvy

Although Ryan does not play with his wooden railway so often now, he still likes to get it out and play trains now and again. This is a recent layout constructed with Train Conductor Mum. All that is missing are some trains.

More Saturday Photohunt Sites

photohunt

Nessie hits China

As part of her world tour, Nessie has been spotted in China.

It is in the Russia News, so it must be true.

Free Burma Oct 4 2007

The Free-Burma.org protest site for bloggers was launched by two German college students. They got the idea from a multi-lingual Wiki page that was set up last month as a forum to allow participants around the world to brainstorm ideas on how to show support for the protesters in Burma.

The internet has been banned in Burma. Bloggers who recorded and posted about the regime's bloody crackdown on protest are in hiding - Bloggers who risked all to reveal the junta’s brutal crackdown in Burma . There has been a flood of reports of alleged brutal killings, disappearances and arrests as the military in Myanmar stamped out the anti-government protests of the last week.

At least 1,000 people have been arrested in Yangon alone, the majority of them monks. Numerous key figures in the National League for Democracy, the main opposition party, and other activists are among those arrested.

Here are a few resources to help you find out more about the situation in Burma.

• The Free Burma site itself
  

• Ko Htike is a blogger in exile London. You can find his blog here - ko htike's prosaic collection


• Amnesty International's suggests action we can all take to help condemn the use of violencde against peaceful protestors Release Myanmar protesters


• Updates on Mission to Myanmar and other items Burmese - Burma (Myanmar) Blog


• A list of blogs about Burma


• Wilsons Blogmanac - lists more resources


• The Australian Burma Gateway


• Well done to the Australian government for refusing to accept a military commander as the new Burmese amassador to Australia. Australia rejects ambassador to Canberra

Thanks Sue Blimely

BBC Shipping Forecast Hits New Highs (and Lows)

There is something timeless about the BBC Shipping Forecast read from a script four times a day on Radio 4, since I can remember (40 Years this week). Not being too maritime myself, it is interesting that the tone and pace of the Shipping Forecast is the same today as it was when I was growing up in Scotland. Obviously the purpose is important for those responsible for craft in some of the most inhospitable seas in the world.

There is something romantic and very familiar about the 31 sections of watter that make up the area covered by the forecast. Fisher, German Bight, Cromarty, Trafalgar and the like.

And although references to "north veering north-east, three or less" and "smooth or slight" might mean nothing to land-based listeners, they are hugely significant to sailors who tune in to Radio 4.

"What we're interested in is the wind force direction and how quickly it's going to change," says Captain Paul Wood, who regularly sails cross-Channel ferries for P&O.

"The forecast will tell us what we're getting, but we can also find out what's causing that problem for us.

If it says 'low Finistere', I know where that is. And if it says 'moving deep and north-east to Forties', I can immediately get a mental picture of where it's going and what the weather will do.

"I know the sea areas like the back of my hand and they make perfect sense to us."

Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer describes the forecast as "baffling".

"It scans poetically. It's got a rhythm of its own. It's eccentric, it's unique, it's English.

"It's slightly mysterious because nobody really knows where these places are. It takes you into a faraway place that you can't really comprehend unless you're one of these people bobbing up and down in the Channel."

Like these guys.

Listen for yourself

Beyonce Skips Malaysia for Indonesia

Beyonce, known for her skimpy outfits has cancelled her show in Malaysia reportedly baulking at Government rules banning sexy attire, singing exuberantly and running and jumping on stage.

Her Managements Offer of this Compromise Outfit was rejected.

Basically, the Malaysian Ministry for Non Sexy Rock Shows wants her to stand in front of the microphone with a full body Baju Kurung and open her mouth. Just sing and sway gently.

This is not the Beyonce that my daughter has come to know and love.

Ironically, Beyonce will instead perform in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on November 1. Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.

Review Time at Work

At this time of the year, I would rather be the guy on the left. Unfortunately it is usually more like the other guy.

Adelaide Oval - The Winter Look for Aussie Rules Football

More Wordless Wednesday Here

No Leg to Stand On

At least he isn't planning to eat it.

And the moral of this story is Dont Leave Your Leg in the Smoker.

Chip Iain Dale has a Chip on his Shoulder

Come On Chip. Get Chippie.

Those are just Political Blogs.

Boring Government Ads Tune Out Aussies

The Government are spending a Million Dollars a day on infomercial type adverts on everything from Industrial Relations to Climate Change in the lead up to the election. I think that they are deluding themselves if they think that it will influence people positively. Quite the opposite. Very cynical and a dumb waste of money.

Free Burma

International bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in Burma. We want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons. These Bloggers are planning to refrain from posting to their blogs on October 4 and just put up one Banner then, underlined with the words „Free Burma!“.

Two types of Yoga

There are two basic types of Yoga

1. Yoga from India

2. Yoga from Possilpark Glasgow

Wanna Be a Credible Creationist?

Then buy a degree. Instant street cred starting as low as $150.

Coming soon an elective in creationist politics???

Pass the Wacky Baccy.

Thanks for this important life changing information Dogfight at Bankstown

Flushing Out Corruption in Politics

Richard Havers is sick of Scottish Politicians. I know the feeling. It is the same, the world over.

Osama Urged to Seek Salvation in Jesus

A Yanqeevangelist has recorded a video message to Osame Bin Laden urging him to repent his sins and convert to Christianity.

Look at you, look at your life," Keller says. "You live like a hunted goat in caves, totally dependent on a small group of people for your survival. At any moment, one of those you trust could betray you like Judas betrayed Jesus and your life would be over. The false prophet you follow, Mohammad, was poisoned to death by one of his wives.

Makes sense to me. Seems Al Jazeera didn't get the scoop on that one.

Thanks Dogfight at Bankstown