The teacher, knowing how precious some of these stories could become, asked the girl to describe the incident.
"Well", she began, "I was in the back yard with my kitty and the rottweiler who lives next door got a running start and before we knew it, he jumped over the fence into our yard!"
"That must've been scary", said the teacher.
"It sure was", said the little girl. "My kitty went 'Fffff, Fffff,Fffff' … and before he could say "Fuck," the rottweiler ate him!"
Crasster has found this incredible imagery of spam somehow transformed into the most beautiful flowers. Buggered if I know how it works, what the hell is ASCII anyway, nor do I understand where he finds this stuff?
When was Don's last good media story? Not the walk-the-plank thing, not when he called a press conference to denounce a leaked email but didn't have the damn thing, not the Exclusive Bretherens, not the gone by lunchtime thing either... Nevermind, he's hip now, all is fine.
"At the heart of the child-abuse problem is a dependency culture that Maori have embraced."Another candidate for voxidieological.
Hardly surprising I know but ABC's episode of Four Corners last night, The Right Stuff, interviewed a stack of former Liberal Party office holders, parliamentarians, as well as a number of members all of whom confirm branch stacking, petty thuggery, and vote rigging.
"a form of propaganda... techniques usually consist of a few people discreetly posing as mass numbers of activists advocating a specific cause. Supporters or employees will manipulate the degree of interest through letters to the editor, e-mails, blog posts, crossposts, trackback, etc."Not a new tactic, just a new name? Every other political campaign includes an element of orchestrated spontineity; it backfired spectacularly on the National Party Research Unit at the live leaders debate out at Avalon last year.
Redletter has the bilefile, an irregular round up of the most bilious of comments from around NZ's blogs, I think I'll start a complementary list tracking the most inane and/or ludicrously ideological commentary; I'll call it voxideological.
"I recognise that markets distribute resources fairly efficiently. And you need to harness that," he says. "That's an extremely important recognition, because you can't hold that and believe in a command economy. But what I've also recognised is that the distributional effects of a market economy on working men and women can be devastating, and therefore you need a range of protections and rights for people."
"This is what drives the fundamentals of my work now: acknowledging that markets generate wealth, but in doing so create inequalities. It's these inequalities that governments much address. That's the defining political difference between the conservatives and Labor."
The haka with handbags. It is amusing. I guess.
Want to own a sample of the combined DNA of the 2006 All Blacks? Nope? Me neither.
Cattle-terrorism, cows disguised as deer, cows disguised as grass.
"the Federal Government’s latest WorkChoices legislation will do little to improve either and is deflecting the debate away from how to grow the pie bigger, to how best to cut it up."Interestingly, since the election of the Howard government in 1996, real public and private funding for vocational education and training has declined 18% per student (compared with a 25% increase for private secondary students) according to research (presentation only) by the Monash University Centre for the Economics of Education and Training.
According to planet-rugby and the Sydney Morning Herald, Tana's signed with French second division side Toulon.
The Office of the Employment Advocate urges some caution with these figures however as the sample is small. That said, it's a troubling start.
According to the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, you no longer need to obsessively vacume your house to avoid asthma. Their research, which followed 600 kids with high risk family histories, suggests that "avoiding house dust mite allergens from birth does not prevent the onset of asthma, eczema or atopy in high-risk children." Marjorie will be pleased.
Food for thought. Papers from the conference will be online here.
I picked Ruben Thorne's recall right but I'd selected Tuitupo and not the third halfback, Cowan. I also picked a second specialist number 8, Tuiali'i, as well as Kaino but instead the selectors have gone with a third hooker, Hore (who was in my squad but ahead of Oliver) and a fourth lock.
Alkatiri did go - Gusmao's brinkmanship succeeded. This morning on 702 they're reporting that Gusmao will call another election if he can't find, and have the Parliament confirm, another Prime Minister. Here is a link to ABC's Kerry O'Brien interviewing Horta about the situation.
"the number of departures has dropped 36 percent and the net-departures have dropped 33 percent"Oppositions always use scandal, rumour and wild speculation to make political points but they must at least get the numbers right!
It has long bothered me that the pretender to the office of Prime Minister has neither been a Minister nor a member of a government. He's in fact the first leader to be unable to win his own seat. Sure he was the Central Banker, but the two roles don't compare - Helen's not pimping to take the role of Govenor of the Reserve Bank so why trust Don with the keys to the ninth floor? Likewise Key is light on experience to be asking to be the Minister of Finance. The simple fact is that being a Minister is not like being a banker or a sharetrader. These are both complex roles, sure, but they're not the best preparation for senior government office.
Four Corners story on the near collapse of Timor Leste last night, Monday 19 June, was one of the best pieces of investigative journalism I've seen in years.
"...way out of line. He has certainly overstepped the mark in relation to the
photographer."
"A conservative government, rabidly pro-privatisation, has pulled the plug on the sale, leaving Iemma and Beazley - notionally but not necessarily anti-privatisation - out to dry in the middle of the political desert."Likewise Larvatus Prodeo quotes Howard in full rhetorical jingoistic fervour.
"I have listened to that, and it is important that on occasions a government have both the courage and the willingness to change its mind on something."
The Commonwealth exerts enormous influence over the States with a relatively limited effort. Take the latest phoney war over the sale of the Snowy Hydro scheme (jointly owned by NSW, Victoria and the Commonwealth). The PM was supportive of privatisation although he expected strong public opposition but then he had a change of heart. Something about it being an "icon". This led to the NSW Premier, the majority shareholder, saying the deal can't proceed.
Australian cricket has a well deserved reputation for knowing how to make a buck. I suspect Steve Waugh is not happy about their latest effort however. Shamelessly trading on his reputation as a family man and all round good bloke, he was Australian of the Year in 2004, Cricket Australia are selling a lifelike baby dressed in Australian garb called "Little Steve". He can be yours for a lazy $250 AUD.
John Howard's set to announce an inquiry into whether or not Australia should build nuclear power plants. The issue is controversial, unsurprisingly, and today, 4 June, the papers are carrying stories about an old Cabinet paper that identified 14 potential sites where the plants could be located."...this government has been delinquent and negligent in its ability to actually address climate change. There was nothing virtually in the Budget to deal with it. We were a blocker of Kyoto. We have not supported our renewables and our alternatives in anything like the kind of way we should. We are seeing about a half billion dollars of investment halted in wind. We are seeing the fact that nukes won’t really satisfy the problems of meeting reduction in greenhouse emissions and yet the Prime Minister is prepared to fly the kite."A full transcript is here.
I'm in the middle of a protracted service debacle because my Mitsubishi dehumidifier has a faulty fan. I bought the damn thing in NZ but have since moved to Australia. As surprising as it might seem, Mitsubishi Electric Australia can't fix it without me having to arrange for parts to be shipped from NZ. Each country builds its own products obviously to different standards. So what to make of this statement from Mitsubishi global:"The Mitsubishi Electric Group is concentrating its efforts on business expansion from a global perspective in an aim to foster and strengthen operations that will prosper on the world stage. We aim to further bolster our business structure through greater global integration and by tying together our worldwide management infrastructure. Specifically, we will foster manufacturing collaboration between mother factories and local plants..." (emphais added).What's the point of having a global brand if global service is not available? Are these things franchises? Shits me big time! So much for borderless capital, weightless economies, symbolic analysts, servicisation of manufacturing and all that shite to do with globalisation - all I want is the fan fixed and this seems to require first arranging a new free-trade agreement between Australia and NZ...
If I had a theme song, say for when RNZ asks me to take over from Kim Hill, this would be it... Mo Better Blues.
"First you move your lipsFabulous!
hike a few more BPS
When demand then dips
and the yeild curve flips
I'll be watching you"
Sidney de Cabot's solitary game for the All Blacks tells you little about a quite remarkable man - the founder of both the NZ University Sports and the NZ University Students' Association in the mid- to late- 30s. From memory, he was awarded several doctorates from Otago University and US universities as well as degrees from UK universities. I didn't know who he was until the NZUSA offices were moved in 1995 unearthing a photo of the very first executive committee. Interestingly, sports proceeded politics in NZ - the political body was only set up after the sporting entity had hosted a few national competitions - interesting but not surprising.
Despite cleaning up the office tipping comp for the second year running, I'm still disappointed with the Super 14 final.
Graham Henry's focus on the Rugby World Cup is clear. By naming two full squads, he's learned the lessons of past campaigns which have failed, in part, because of injuries in critical positions. NZ can now field two full teams, both of which are capable of playing in the final at Stade de France in October next year... should we get there. No other team have this depth which gives NZ a distinct advantage.
adweek links to this Russian blog which has these great images for Benjamin Moore Paints - adweek don't believe they're real but I kinda hope they are.
Michael Cullen has just handed down the NZ government's budget which does not include tax cuts. If you believe the hype, tax cuts are a major issue in NZ and the lack of them is causing economic stagnation. Despite the fact this is patently untrue, the NZ economy is doing nicely thanks very much (hey, don't take my word for it, here's the IMF's view), National's tactics are incredibly shortsighted for a number of reasons.Tax competitiveness with Australia, along with incentives for tax planning created by the gap between the 33 company tax rate and the top personal income tax rate of 39 percent, appeared to be possible issues for reform in an otherwise very sound tax system. (page 9 emphasis added)Sure, I live here with my family but it's not because I might earn more - Sydney is a great place to live for many reasons, a number of which are outside of any government's power but none of this means that returning to NZ does not remain a real option. As Dorothy is fond of saying; there's no place like home.
The consumerist blogs on the latest FCUK campaign involving two women kicking the crap out of each other for voyeuristic thrills as well as a rip-off (shot by the same director) set to a remix of Go West's We Close our Eyes. The videos, both of which are probably best viewed away from the office, are here.
In a bizarre twist to the Tasmanian mining rescue, there are reports that a talking David Boon doll spontaneously burst into speech around the same time the two miners were walking out of the Beaconsfield mine... According to Sydney ABC's drive time show last night, at 6am or thereabouts on May 9, the talking Boony asked for a beer - some 1000 kilometres away from Sydney, Boony's fellow Tasmanians Todd Russell and Brant Webb were also considering a tasty beverage!
Since starting this blog, I've realised how much bandwidth is soaked up by adverstising; viral and otherwise. Here's two very different ads, reflecting their products and markets no doubt, that are particularly good. This one is for Campari and is well saucy! This one is for Trumpets, a NZ icecream, is typical of NZ humour.
