New Year Resolution

I've had success with this year's resolutions. They were achievable (important) and I've been largely able to stick to them.

I started playing regular sport, I've read more books and I've been going to bed earlier.

The reading has dropped off a bit lately as I've been bogged down in the literary equivalent of treacle. However, I'll be picking up the pace after I bought three novels on eBay for $10 delivered!

Tennis lessons didn't start till September, but I've made the effort, picked up some skills and have a team organised to start full-scale competition in February. I even bought some tennis shoes today so I'll be fitted out just right.

What of this years resolutions?  The usual ones like drink less, be more patient, get out of bed earlier, can be trotted out, doomed to fail, but that's not what works.

I need some more a tangible goals.

My Dark Sports Secret

I realise that as a blogger- just learning the ropes - I should have an aversion to sport and to celebrity sports people - but... this...

Warne over and out

No, No, No, No, No, No, No.......

Podcasts

Of all the Web 2.0 technologies, I really love the podcast.

The freedom to choose the program that I want, when I want is very liberating. 

How I despise being trapped in the car in peak hour gridlock with some FM bozo yelling at me between endless commercials for mobile-phone plans or some ' new ABC' presenter droning on about their lame topic of the day (yep Richard Stubbs and Lindy Burns, I mean you). Podcasts set me free.

My favouites at the minute are

Boxcutters

Film Buffs Forecast

Footy Heads (between seasons at the minute)

Also, as a one-off, John Doyle giving the Andrew Olle Lecture 2005.

Citizenship Test Leak

Painfree has been given some drafts from the question bank for the Howard's new citizenship exam, the You're Oright, Bloody Beauty Ocker (YOBBO) test.

Two examples are:

Q22 You are informed by your navy that some asylum seekers drifting in to Australian waters are throwing their children overboard to avoid being turned away. Do you:

a) Ask for verification  of the story.

b) Instruct the border protection agencies to expedite the transfer of the asylum seekers to the Australian mainland because they are clearly under duress and have taken leave of their senses.

c) Immediately feed the story to the media in order to score some cheap political points.

 

Q99

Your country has an indigenous population that has a twenty-year shorter life expectancy, four fold increased infant mortality as well as alcohol, violence and unemployment problems.

Do you:

a) Remove their peak body of representation.

b) Legislate to deprive them of reclaiming their tribal land.

c) Remove reconciliation from the national agenda.

d) All of the above.

Colin Hay

Mark your diaries now. Colin Hay at the Corner in Melbourne on 12 January 2007.

iPod use now legal

The Financial Review (2/12) reports that the Senate passed the Federal Government's new copyright laws after backing down on the 'single copy' stipulation of the legislation.

In draft form, the laws allowed for only one permanent copy of any copyrighted material to be kept by consumers. The Apple iPod however, creates a copy on both the user's personal computer as well as the iPod itself.

Justice Minister Chris Ellison conceded that the laws were excessively restrictive. "The amendment will...render legitimate the ordinary use of digital music players", he said.

Comment, Opinion, Thought

Blogs enable everyone to publish their opinions. Some are researched and referenced, some is just opinion.

Unfortunately, the value of opinion is reduced as more unsubstantiated opinion is expressed. In the future, one will need to ground their opinion in some sort of fact or idea.

Sources of facts and ideas include news and commentaries published in any of the various media. They vary in quality.

One source of ideas I have been impressed with this year has been the series of commentaries from Mirko Bagaric in The Age.

Most recently he wrote of ethics in business, with particular reference to AWB. Whilst I don't necessarily agree with all he has to say, he makes elegant and convincing arguments. This intelligent approach to opinion is uplifting compared to some more popular columnists such as Bolt and Neil Mitchell.

Check out some of his publications, they are worth the mental gymnastics.

Mirko Bagaric is a professor at Deakin Law School.

More Cable Problems

My iPod stopped syncing.

It charged OK but the computer could not detect it.

I did the usual reinstalls, etc... Screaming. Pulling hair.

I replaced the iPod firewire cable - everything fine!

This follows a week of downtime, multiple reinstalls, new motherboard and hard drive last month due to a faulty IDE (hard drive) cable. AAAAgh..

Matt Moffitt Memorial Tour

Fans (like me) of 80's and 90's rockers Matt Finish will need to cancel all appointments next week as the band reforms to pump out some of their classics live in Sydney and Melbourne.
The lineup is headed by band originals John Prior and Jeff Clayton along with newcomers Luke Dixon and Matt Cornell.
Original singer and songwriter Matt Moffitt died suddenly and prematurely in 2003, seemingly ending the chances of the band reforming. However dynamic drummer, John Prior, has organised and promoted this three gig tour through his business, Prior Promotions.
Hope to see fans and the curious next Thursday, 30 November, at the Corner in Melbourne. One show only.

Lethal Injection Ruling Soon

A ruling on the challenge to lethal injection procedures in California is expected soon, reports the Death Penalty Information Center.

The presiding judge asked for additional briefings on the following:

- The monitoring an inmates conscious state during the execution process.

-Whether EEG monitoring had a role to play in reducing suffering.

-Whether medical doctors were required to supervise these executions.

-Whether pancuronium could be left out of the three drug sequence to reduce the chance of undetected pain.

-If a sole drug execution using barbiturate was viable.

CBS finds YouTube increases ratings.

Podcastingnews reports that CBS has found that ratings increase for programs it has promoted by posting clips at Youtube.
A spokesman commented that it was "exciting" that CBS was learning more about its audience than ever before.
We may be seeing the genesis of a new content delivery model involving content originators, media businesses and internet vehicles.
I wonder what the music industry is making of all this.

Techo Crime Set to Explode

New laws proposed by the Howard Federal Government are set to make criminals of all iPod users.

Under the proposed plan, owners of music CD's are permitted to make one main copy and a second temporary copy of the copyrighted material. the secondary copy must be destroyed as soon as possible.

However, a CD 'ripped' by Apple's iTunes gives the user a copy of the music on both their computer and their iPod. The iPod owner has committed an indictable offence and risks five years in gaol or a $65,000 fine, or both.

Why does the Australian Federal Government continue drafting complex legislation to protect the interest of music publishers?

The answer is at least partially in the conditions of the "Free Trade Agreement" signed recently with the USA.

Such protection is rarely offered to local industries but the full weight of the law will be felt by Australian consumers to protect foreign big business.

The modern capitalist manta of "Compete or Die" has suddenly gone missing.

A quaint, old-fashioned solution would be for the music industry to provide a better product at a cheaper price.

Helen Coonan on Broadband Speeds

Apparently Australia's slow broadband speeds are actually a blessing!

Helen Coonan, the Communications Minister explained today.

"What we have to understand is that people have got an interest in being able to access the services they want on broadband, and very fast broadband may be more than people either want to pay for or that they need to suit their individual needs,"

Thanks Helen, but maybe consumers would like to make that choice themselves.

Crash

I've had a computer problem that's taken some time to correct.

Subsequently, I've needed to restore all my settings and services.

I've only just got around to reactivating Microsoft Live Writer to maintain this blog.

Cheers.

Bash a Bolt

We do admire the writers at the Politico-Technical "Bleeding Edge".

We particularly like the way they 'Bash the Bolt". We couldn't do it better.

Use of BIS in Lethal Injection

The State of South Carolina has responded to the US District Court's ruling that a sufficiently medically trained person is present at execution by lethal injection to ensure that the prisoner is unconscious at the time of administration of the lethal doses of pancuronium and potassium, by adding BIS monitoring to its execution protocol.

In April this year, the state argued that "the BIS monitor can be employed and operated and values obtained, recorded, and interpreted by any health care providers experienced in using electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors, such as registered nurses, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians".

No Saddam, Terror links

The ABC reports that a US senate report has found no evidence for a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003.

The report said that Saddam had frequently rejected requests for meetings by representatives from Al Qaeda.

Alleged terror links were one of the reasons, along with the purported presence of WMD, that the 'coalition of the willing' launched their air and ground invasion on Iraq.

The Iraqi dictator was captured in December 2003 and is appearing before an Iraqi court in Baghdad on charges of crimes-against-humanity.

Twin Anniversaries

This weekend marks the twin anniversaries of Pauline Hanson's maiden speech in the Australian Parliament (1996) and the terrorist attacks on the USA (2001).
By creating a new sense of fear, intolerance and xenophobia in Australia, there are no more significant events in the success of the Howard government, as Emma Dawson argues.

Telstra T3

The Australian Federal Government has indicated that it is to sell a further third of its 51% shareholding the the national telecommunications carrier, Telstra.

The remaining two thirds well be transferred to the government's "Future Fund", to be sold down over time.

Whilst the Telstra share price is presently kept buoyant by high dividends, the pool of about one third of the company's shares in the Future Fund, selling into the market, may well provide a long term depressant to the stock.

Anaesthetists and the death penalty

 

In his article in The Sunday Age, 20 August 2006, Peter Huck discusses the conundrum facing the judiciaries of the 38 death-penalty states of the USA.

The experience of pain during execution may make the death penalty unlawful under the 8th amendment of the US Constitution.

The court of Missouri has ordered that an anaesthetist be present at each execution to ensure that drugs are administered in a pain-free manner.

At present, the search for an anaesthetist willing to take up such a role has been fruitless, leaving the future of the death-penalty uncertain.

ABC dumps criticism of Windschuttle

 

Comments critical of controversial historian and ABC board member Keith Windschuttle were edited from broadcast on Helen Razer's Sunday Arts radio program.

While the ABC claims the right to censor potentially defamatory comments, listeners who tune to the national broadcaster to hear 'vigourous debate' of controversial topics may have to look elsewhere if the debate involves any of the ABC's board members.

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