Is this really Victoria's first Hoon?

I'm not sure I buy it.

The Herald Sun reported on April 3 that a 43-year-old man from regional Victoria has become the state's first driver to permanently lose his car under anti-hoon laws.

Laws introduced in July last year meant that drivers caught drag racing, doing burnouts or committing other hoon acts can have their cars impounded for 48 hours for a first offence.
Drivers face a three-month impound order for a second offence and the permanent confiscation of their car for a third offence.

Now, when I think of "HOON", I don't normally think "middle-aged country gent".

That's unusual enough; but the icing on the cake in this conspiracy theory is the car that has been impounded.

V8 Falcon?
SS Commodore?
Subaru WRX?

NO

NO

NO







1980 Toyota Corona Liftback








WTF?

Youtube epidural injection video

An epidural injection instructional video uploaded to Youtube not only helps anaesthetists to hone their technique, but may also help to dispel the fears of patients.

See what you think.

I think it has Broad appeal!

First Crack in the DRM Wall?

EMI has announced that it will release its music catalogue DRM-free.

Although single tracks will carry a higher price (AU pricing nor confirmed), downloads will be offered at a higher bitrate and complete albums will NOT carry a price premium!!!

Could this be the start of the collapse of DRM?

EMI is obviously hoping to increase sales and revenue, but certainly,  the consumer is the big winner here.

This move comes at a time when DRM is coming under increased pressure.

Graham Philipson gives a good summary of the current stand-off between music companies and music consumers HERE.

Recording industry claims of huge monetary losses from piracy  have long been considered 'rubbery' at best. In disputing estimates, detractors argue that not every downloaded file represents a lost sale. Industry claims are considered to be a desperate attempt to maintain an outdated (and expensive) business model.

The Recording industry may be coming around.

Meanwhile, Google Chief Executive, Eric Schmidt, recently questioned the valuations that media companies put on their copyrights. Traditional media argues their content has a certain intrinsic value, while Google says "prove it," he said.

Google is currently facing legal challenges to their video uplaod service, Youtube.

Read more at Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Helen Coonan's Pies in the Sky.

 

Its bloody raining pies!

LISTEN AND WATCH

JoHo and Friends 2

Er John. Why don't you just skedaddle down that there drug store ....pick me up some bourbon and beef jerky. Me and Cheney are goin' shootin'...

Saying Goodbye to Zone Alarm

I have just uninstalled the highly rated Zone Alarm free personal fire wall program, which I have used for many years.

Zone Alarm had, till recently, frequent updates, which included offers to upgrade to a more complete security suite. I was already happy with my anti-virus, so I declined Zone Labs' offers and only ever reinstalled the firewall.

However, the new upgrade to the ZA firewall included an obligatory trial version of the ZA antivirus, which clashed with my existing AV and refused to install unless I removed it.

So, sadly, I removed ZA firewall and installed the equally well-credentialed Comodo firewall.

It's a consumer society and the tech crowd is fussy.

My David Hicks checklist by J W Howard

Expedite David's trial to save face before election - Check

Ensure guilty plea to justify mistreatment - Check

Ensure David cannot profit from telling his story - Check

Sentence to six years so David is behind bars till after next election.

Repatriate David before election; look like hero.

Release Mr Hicks from prison; smear.

JoHo and Friends Part 1

JoHo with reclusive Sydney bussisman Eric Krecichwost, the founder and owner of failed finance business, Fincorp.
Fincorp is in administration owing $300 million to financiers and investors.

Fincorp advertising and The Age

Last weekend, Fincorp, one of Australia's most prominent property finance companies was placed in administration, with debts of three hundred million dollars.

Fincorp has been offering unsecured high interest to investors willing to part with their money; money used to fund property development projects.

Fincorp is now dead in the water and most investors have done their dough with little hope of recompense. Most investors approached Fincorp directly because the company was a big advertiser. Unlike the Westpoint debacle, there was little referral from financial planners, the middle-men who may be held responsible for the Westpoint losses. Simply, there will be no-one to sue.

Financial scribes including those writting for The Age "Money" liftout on Wednesdays have been warning investors to be careful of such "mezzanine" funds for some time.

However as recently as last week, Money has been running large advertisements for Fincorp.

In today's edition of Money, John Collett has written an article "Trouble at Fincorp", outlining the company's woes.

I hope Collett's readers didn't respond to Fincorp's ad last week.

ASIC has advice about investing with this type of company.

AFL player manager blues

AFL player welfare officers spend a lot of their time pulling players out of scraps and out of pubs and nightspots.

Helps to protect the player, the club and The Game.

Whilst inconvenient, its usually not that difficult  to enter a pub, way after curfew, kick 'budding-champion' in the backside and lead him by the collar back to Mummy's.

Not so easy at the West Coast.......

 

Player manager knocks on door of bikie club headquarters.....

Large metal door opened by large, annoyed bikie-type....

Player manager - Good morning. I'm the player welfare officer from the West Coast Eagles.

Bikie - Grrrrrrrrr

Player manager - Are any of our players here??

Bikie - Grrrrrrrrrr

Player Manager - Its past their bedtime..........

Bikie reaches for baseball bat.

Player manager - Can I have my players back.....Please.......If that's OK.

Bikie - Grrrrrrrrrrr

Closes door.

John Howard on Drugs

JoHo waded into the illicit-drugs-in-sport debate this week, criticizing the AFL approach to the issue.

His comments were predictably short-sighted and reactionary - calling for an "overdue review" of the policy and for a "zero-tolerance approach to illicit drugs".

One wonders whether JoHo, who knows little about the AFL and has historically shown no leadership in drugs policy, saw an opportunity to score some points against Andrew Demetriou, the League's CEO, who delivered scathing criticism of JoHo's government in a speech in 2005.

In fact, JoHo may have confirmed this as his motive by denying it thus, "I am not taking the opportunity to have a go at Demetriou or the AFL Commission, it's not an easy job".

Pauline Hansen tells all

Oh........










Oh .........









Oh.........









Oh........









Oh David......no..................

Bolt says pull troops out of Iraq

Andrew Bolt, appearing on Ross Stevenson's 3AW breakfast show this morning, said that Australian troops should be withdrawn from Iraq prior to this year's federal election.
Good on you Bolta, I knew you'd come round.

How's your War on Terror looking?

 

Feeling more comfortable with your War on Terror.

The West slowly getting the upper-hand? Huh?

The world's becoming safer; more peaceful. Right?

You want fries with that?

This is the Coalition of The Willing's  drive-through war. Quick, healthy and piping-hot victory against the threatening hordes.    

Yep.  

McVictory!

 

Paul McGeough, Fairfax Journalist, currently in Islamabad,  offers a sobering review of the War on Terror here.

Sorry to spoil your day.

Save the Tasmanian Devil

Isn't this a cute little critter.

Named for their fearsome growl and their horrid table manners, the Tasmanian Devil is the Apple-Isle's last remaining native mammal.

Unfortunately, Devils are under threat from a malignant mouth ulcer disease that is spreading throughout the Devil population.

As research continues into the cause (likely to be a micro-organism), plans are being made to isolate a population of healthy beasts to protect against extinction.This may be in captivity or on Marie Island on Tasmania's west coast or on the Tasman Peninsula, south of Hobart.

Help Save the Tasmanian Devil.

See Devils at play here.

More info on Tassie Devils.

Sign a petition to help save the Devils.

Cracked Coconut

Australia's PM, John Winston Howard (from here on referred to as Joh-Ho) is starting to look just a little nervous.



Sacrificing Human Services Minister Ian Campbell, in order to smear more Brian Burke dirt on Kevin Rudd seems to have backfired, with the muck falling away from Rudd like fried egg from a teflon saucepan.

Joh-Ho's army of sycophantic cyborgs - Ruddock, Abbott, Nelson, Minchin - will continue to spew the Government's doctrine, but some of the government backbenchers must be uneasy.



Its only 241 days till the next election - Thanks Ms Fits .




Backbencher 1 - "If the big coconut doesn't stick his finger in the dyke, it the end of me."

Backbencher 2 - "I don't feel like being flushed down the U-bend with that big turd........cant we do some thing."

Backbencher 1 - "We can't put Costello in charge.....The iceberg won't survive being towed to Canberra.......not enough substance"

Backbencher 2 - "Public won't buy it.....look at that smirk....you think he'd get that surgically corrected."

Backbencher 1 - "No-one else....we're stuffed.... the cabinet's full of frickin apple-polishers. No talent"

Backbencher 2 - Except......

Backbencher 1 - You thinking about.......

Backbencher 2 - Yep.....

Backbencher 1 - He's in a hurry. He's not interested in support positions. He's.....

Backbencher 2 - A republican! Yeah...........Joh-Ho's battlers will like that!

Backbencher 1 - Turnbull....you bloody lifesaver!

Real Apple Innovation

Whilst Apple Inc often claims innovation, the current rumour that it may be about to introduce a flash memory based notebook would be real innovation.

Flash memory has the advantages of ruggedness and low power consumption compared to traditional hard-drive storage.

The hard drive is the staple storage medium because it has huge capacity and is very cheap. Hard-drives though,are fragile and prone to failure.

A scaled-down notebook with flash-memory and a full-sized operating system would be a real breakthrough (also the final nail in the coffin of the PDA and a real threat to the smartphone).

Confusing headline

 

"Turkey slaps ban on YouTube"

 

What?

 

No more turkey-slaps on Youtube?

 

Am I going to have to start watching "Big Brother" again?

 

Apparently not.

Some sub-editor at The Age is basking in the glory of this amusing double entendre after the Turkish national telecommunications provider, Turk Telekom, was ordered to block access to Youtube by a local court.

Prosecutors alleged that videos on Youtube had insulted the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Ataturk is famous, in Australia, for his quote:

 

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives.. you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.

Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours..

You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now living in our bosom and are in peace.

Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

 

 

The statement was popularised by Midnight Oil in their song "Blossom and Blood".

QC Lets Fly

As the tide of public opinion turns in favour of David Hicks, Robert Richter QC launched a stinging attack on Ruddoch, Howard, Downer and Co. here in the article from The Age 18 Feb 2007

Hypocrites breaking our law at every turn

More power to him.

Rate Your MD?

Now this is strange...kinda fun though.

Canadians rate their doctors for all to see.

Some of the feedback is interesting.....

 

"NEVER ON TIME!"

"I waited a year and half to see him because of endometriosis, only to have him tell me to give up my career and get pregnant. "

"It really bothers me how many prescriptions she currently has me on, and I don't even know what they are for."

"I find the Dr. very disorganized. This Dr. needs a palm pilot."

and I REALLY love this one.....

"Inexperienced; inefficient; surly bedside manner; rough and incompetent during physical exam (in 50 years I have never been told by any doctor that they couldn't FIND my cervix!)"

This website is pure GOLD.

http://ratemds.com/canada/index.jsp