This is brilliant. HT – Bleeding Edge
World
Google have revolutionised the mighty Sherrin, with the release of the GBall technology. From the site:
The gBall at a glance:
- Weighs an extra 107g
- Extra 35.8mm in diameter
- Kicks are automatically measured using special in-built equipment
- You get personalised online kicking tips and suggestions, based on kicking data
- gBall vibrates if player agents or talent scouts want to speak to you
- Find your lost gBall online using Google Maps
Fantastic to hear the might of Google getting behind the best sport in the world. Although I was a little surprised to see a press announcement like this without a created date…
Sweet, Sweet Malcopops
It’s been an interesting week in Australian politics (if that sounds impossible, you might as well quit now), and most of the interest (in spite of the significant happenings in the global economic climate) has been in the debate around the Federal Government’s “Alcopops” Tax. Here’s a rundown on the events, with cute little analogies to keep you interested:
- A few months ago, the government announced that they would be putting a tax on any alcoholic drink that tasted like a lollipop. They did this in an effort to cut down on young girls binge drinking, and said pretty much that.
- As soon as it was announced, the Government started collecting the tax, without the legislation having passed through Parliament. Apparently they’re allowed to do that. This is roughly akin to shooting the murder suspect on the assumption that they’ll get the death penalty before they’ve been tried.
- The opposition decided that the term “money grubbing initiative” would win them more votes than going along with this as a public health issue. That’s like a leader of a political party playing cynical politics.
- In desperate efforts to negotiate the legislation going through the Government tried to pull the bluff that if the law got blocked then the money would be returned to the villainous distillers. This is roughly analagous to trying to hold up a bank with a Super Soaker.
- As negotiations continued, it became apparent that the final hurdle for the government was the Family First senator Stephen Fielding. Having already successfully had the government add changes to alcohol labelling and a bunch of funding for alcohol treatment programs he tried to have the government agree to a complete ban on alcohol advertising for daytime sporting events. Which is like the kid who is offered a bag of mixed lollies who retorts by saying he won’t say thankyou unless he’s also given a controlling stake in Cadbury Schweppes.
- Stephen Fielding then voted against the legislation. The kid threw the lollies on the ground, punched the lolly man in the nuts and ran away.
- Kevin Rudd then called the Liberal Party the party for binge drinking, and that all around the country teenagers would be toasting Malcolm Turnbull whilst swilling their “Malcopops”. Roughly the same as calling anyone who believes in Social Security a communist, whilst making a reference to the “little Rudd book”.
There you go, there’s your Australian politics wrap up for the week. Tony Jones had better watch his back - I’m coming after him.
Mahatma Gandhi - Capitalist?
I don’t know of a better story of people completely missing the point. A guy has just bought a bunch of Gandhi’s possessions for $US 1.8 million.
The buyer was one of India’s richest men. The chairman of United Breweries, Vijay Mallya had been on the phone all along, talking to his representative Toni Bedi – a sharply dressed man in an immaculate white turban, sitting near the front.
Afterwards, as the scrum pressed forwards towards him, Mr Bedi asked for “a little breathing room”.
Were the items really worth $1.8m I asked him?
“Absolutely. I think it’s well worth it, and a lot more. If you look at the heritage of Mahatma Gandhi and what Mahatma Gandhi was teaching it is well worth it.”
via BBC News | World | South Asia | High Drama at NY Gandhi auction
Worth it?!If you look at what Mahatma Gandhi was teaching it was well worth it?!?! Which teaching? How do you idolise the man to the point of wanting to spend that much money on owning his stuff, without actually having any real grasp of what the man taught, and lived for?
Well – that does sound a little familiar.
May have already tweeted about this, but I just had to share. From the site:
Beard Head beard caps will protect your head from the cold and keep your upper lip and chin toasty warm, much like a real beard would!
Try wearing a Beard Head beard cap out on the ski slopes and impress your friends with your awesome fashion sense! Do your best Viking or Pirate impression by donning a Beard Head at your next sporting event!
Stand in all your Beard-y glory as your friends and familiy stare in awe of your manly Beard Head!
Buy yours today!*Now with special interchangeable moustaches!*
Way too cool
- Beardhead – Lumberjack Edition
This is the learning curve for me – this event is so clearly an emergency that everyone has put the bush-fire mission ahead of their own agendas. We understand that peacetime rules don’t apply in this situation. Even our own schedules have been pushed aside – no unnecessary meetings – no long coffees or chats… we have an important work to do right now.
It got me thinking about the 2000 young people that sleep homeless every night in Australia – or about the tens of thousands foster kids without a decent home OR about the Asylum seekers who have fled similar disasters (or worse) and have been left to fend for themselves… human-trafficking survivors and those still suffering – I was thinking perhaps we could declare some other emergencies – organize ourselves so we are fixed and unified in mission and do it again.
The quote above highlights a point that’s worth considering. The correlation between our 2000 young homeless every night and the bushfire survivors who have lost their homes is too stark to easily ignore. We (quite fairly) consider the bushfire survivors to be in urgent need of help because they have had no choice in the dramatic nature of their slide into homelessness. And somewhere deep down, we want to believe that it’s the choices others have made that means that I’m doing fine while someone else is homeless.
Imagine what could be accomplished if government and the community took on Danielle’s suggestion above, and declared human trafficking, homelessness and severe poverty to be national emergencies of the same magnitude. There is even precedent – the former Howard Government declared that the level of child abuse in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory was an emergency, and while I’d suggest that the implementation of their “intervention” was ill-considered to the point of just about being racist – the point is that this could actually happen. These causes are emergencies. It’s certainly easier to ignore, but a little bit of urgency could be an amazing thing.
Melbourne has just experienced our hottest day on record and as a result a massive amount of our state is on fire. Can you please pray.
This is my Gravatar. Those with sensitive stomachs had best avert their eyes
Have you noticed that when some people comment, they get a little picture of themselves next to it?
What is a gravatar?
A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?
Basically, these guys provide a service that sends back your pretty little picture, so that people everywhere can know that it really is Geoff Matheson posting a comment on their blog because nobody else would possibly pretend to look like that. And Gravatar got bought out by Automattic who run WordPress.com, so once you sign up for a Gravatar, you’ll see it popping up next to your comments all over the web. So go do that today!
Was inspired by the benediction given at Barack Obama’s inauguration and thought I’d share some with everyone.
We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.
Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back; when brown can stick around; when yellow will be mellow; when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.
Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.
via Rev. Lowery Inauguration benediction. Transcript. – Lynn Sweet.
I am totally finishing all my public prayers with “Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen” from now on.
“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”
There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick… on TwitPic.
The above comment was posted along with the picture linked on Twitter, only moments after the (now famous) plane landed in the Hudson River in New York.
This is why citizen journalism on the web, and twitter (combined with camera-phone integration) is freaking awesome. This is how news gets broken in 2009. And how cool is the picture!