US $95 Million??

For This

Picasso painting fetches $124m

I swear I am in the wrong business. Do you think my forays into the artistic world might support Kati and myself?

I call this one, Paddy with turban, red scarf and cat.

What do you think?

Onwards and Upwards

Robert Doyle has gone! GOOD. He should never have been there in the first place. The Liberal party should have left Dennis Napthine in the leadership role. I admit he looked a little uncomfortable in the limelight, but he came across as sincere, straight up and down and likeable. Doyle on the other hand, came across as an idiot.

On Monday the party will select its new leader, lets hope it is someone a little sharper than Doyle. Someone who can unite the party behind them, someone who is there for the long haul and is prepared to accept defeat at the forthcoming state election and soldier on with eyes on the bigger picture.

Not Right

I am sure this post will be lost on our overseas friends, but it needs a mention. One of our football matches this last weekend ended in controversy when the siren sounded to end the game, but the umpire did not hear it and therefore did not signal the end of the game. One of the teams kicked a score during the small period of uncertainty and the scores became level, thus creating a draw.

Now it seems the Australian Football League in its infinite wisdom has seen fit to overturn the “drawn” result in favor of the score as it stood when the siren went.

To me it’s crap. Bollocks. A con. The rules say the game is not over until the umpire signals it is over. Sure it was a stuff up, not the fault of either team but hey stuff up’s happen, live with it. Overturning the previously acknowledged score is the worst possible action the A.F.L could have taken.

A similar thing happened to Collingwood in a night grand final several years back. The opposition team kicked a score after the siren had sounded to end the game, are we now to expect that game to be noted as a Collingwood victory? There was outcry at the time, but as I recall “the game ain’t over till the umpire say’s so” was the rule thrown up at we Collingwood supporters for years to come.

The A.F.L has acted appallingly in the face of this a mere stuff up that they should simply have accepted and moved on.

It’s A Miracle

A true no shit God is looking down on us miracle. 5 days ago a gold mine collapsed in Tasmania, leaving three men missing nearly 1000 meters under ground. Sadly but not unexpectedly one body was recovered three or four days ago. There was pretty much a consensus among most laymen, myself included, that the other 2 had no chance of survival.

Well bugger me, I am happy to say I was wrong. The two remaining men have been found alive and apparently unharmed. Although they have yet to be dug out, they are alive.

THE two miners survived five days underground by drinking drips of water that run through the mine, a family member said last night.

John Webb, Brant Webb’s father, confirmed rescuers had spoken with his son and Todd Russell, who were both still inside a metal cage on a cherry picker they were working in when the rockfall happened.

He said a rock had fallen on top of the cage, shutting them inside, and the pair were forced to sit in the cramped structure which was just 1.2m by 1.2m.

Read about it here, here, here and here.

Todd Russell, 35, and Brant Webb, 36 you are extraordinary survivors. Hats off to you guys and best wishes for the future.

Sincere condolences to the family of Larry Knight, who unfortunately did not survive.

Muslims In Space PT II

Computer will tell Muslim astronaut how to pray in space

Malaysian scientists and religious scholars are trying to determine how Muslims should behave in space, as the predominantly Islamic country prepares to dispatch its first astronaut next year.

More than 150 delegates attended a seminar to consider how to pray in space given the difficulties of locating Mecca and holding the prayer position in zero gravity; as well as other questions such as halal food and washing.

“It’s as important as sending the astronaut,” said Mustafa Din bin Subari, deputy director of Angkasa, Malaysia’s space agency. “We want to stress that being a Muslim does not restrict you from doing anything.”

Of course not. Being a Muslim does not restrict you from doing anything. Like eating a nice juicy pork chop for example. Or if your a woman, Islam would never dream of restricting your dress choices. What Mustafa Din bin Subari is saying is you can do whatever you want, as long as you do it in a manner dictated by Islamic ideals. Which in any language means “restrict”. Any language that is, except the language of fanaticism.

As I said before, if you need to consult the local witchdoctor to help you plan your trip into outer space, you probably don’t need to be there.

Jill Sinner

Jill Singer is a long time non fave. Her semi coherent rantings most often leave one mystified when not angry. Still, she is a highly paid and experienced (alleged) journalist. That’s what makes her sin this week all the more evil.

WITH petrol prices getting as high as Ossie Osbourne, what feasible options does the Federal Government have to ease the pain of consumers?

Ok I for one stopped reading after that paragraph, which just happens to be the very first one.

If a person can’t spell someone’s name correctly, most especially when said name consists of only four letters and happens to be one of the most famous people on the planet, why then should anyone pay careful attention to anything that follows?

The mans name is Ozzy. O Z Z Y. Four letters, a simple google search would clarify this. This is a fundamental mistake so basic in its stupidity, so breathtaking in its lack of research that I wonder why an editor allowed it to go to print.

Much like everything else she pens really.

New Sounds

This is slicker than eel snot.

Pandora Internet Radio

Choose an artist and it will play not only the one you chose, but others that it considers similar. A fantastic way to discover new music.

God I love the Internet.

Concept Albums

I think for the most part, my favorite musical experience is that of listening to concept albums. I have always thought that music should be a movie for your ears, and a song is like the preview. Sadly though, through commercialism the three and a half minute pop song has become the focus rather than the teaser.

As a general rule, concept albums revolve around an interconnecting theme. Some storyline that connects each song to each other song on the album. Sometimes this “connecting theme” is mighty fragile, or in some cases non existent. The mighty Styx did an album called “Paradise Theater” which was allegedly a conceptual piece. Apparently it was based on the tearing down of a theater which was built to last forever. This album is a fine example of what could generously be called a “loosely connected concept album”, which is to say that most of the songs had little or nothing to do with the theater being torn down, nor with any of the other songs on the album.

Anyway, the majesty of the concept album is that you can wrap yourself up in it, get deeply involved with the story. Just like watching a movie. Pink Floyds “The Wall” is one of the better known examples of this movie making for the ears. “Dark Side Of The Moon” is another Pink Floyd concept effort, however I would bung that one in with “Paradise Theater” in as much as the songs enjoy a tenuous link at best. Not that It’s bad by any means, just not as clear and precisely connected as perhaps “The Wall”, or their “Final Cut” albums.

My top ten concept albums are as follows. I tried to only include one from any given artist, but Savatage have done so many and so well that they have to get two mentions.

Anzac Day 2006

Today is Anzac Day.

Bill Done It?

Our good friend Chris at Right Wing and Right Minded has an interesting story on how Iran got closer to getting a nuke.

Apparently every intern’s favorite Bill Clinton gave Iran plans for the nuclear bomb as part of a very cunning plan, that naturally fell apart. The plan was to give Iran a flawed plan for the bomb in the hope that it would slow down their bomb building program. In the tradition of the great Baldrick, the cunning plan had a flaw. The deliberately flawed plans for the bomb were given to a Russian scientist who was known to play both sides of the fence. He was told not to look at the (fake) plans. Yeah right. According to this report he not only had a peek, but he added a note in with them saying he could fix the (apparently very rudimentary deliberate mistakes) for a few dollars.

This whole cunning plan went under the moniker of “Operation Merlin”.

Now if it is all true, this is one reason why America sometimes faces a credibility problem in these matters. Clinton gives nuke plans away and Bush tries to stop Iran from building one. Those inside the U.S.A will see Bush trying to correct a mistake made by another administration (well they should anyway), but those outside the US will only see that the US created another monster that it now has to try and stop. Just like the perceptions RE bin Laden. You know the ones, the US trained him, armed him, made him coffee and cookies and all that.

The US takes on so much responsibility that decisions of is successive administrations take on a global importance, not just internal import. Unfortunately it seems a lot of the world does not seem to notice what administration makes what decision that affects them, they just see it as the US did it.

I believe it comes down to ideology as much as anything else. If people outside the US would take note of what administration does (or did) what, then said people could position themselves on the ideological side of the administration that makes decisions that best suit them. This would have a trickle down effect on global politics. Unfortunately most people don’t look very far past “the US did it” mentality.

If this story is true, then I guess it has just single handedly killed off any chance what so ever of Hillary getting the top job in 2008, and thats gotta be a good thing.

First posted HERE