Archive for the ‘Mind’ Category
Not so Marvellous Melbourne: Cowboys and Indians
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Of all that has happened to Melbourne one of the most marvellous gifts has been the arrival of the Indians, forget the cavalry, the Indians have far more to offer and they come bearing gifts not guns. They are beautiful in all aspects of appearance and manner and their humor adds a perfect layer upon that which we have in Australia, and mostly I enjoy their terrific food….well that’s not quite correct… mostly I enjoy what I have learned from the beautiful indian’s I have had the good fortune to meet in Melbourne. One of my sweetest Indian friends took me to Footscray in Melbourne to supervise my Indian grocery shopping and oh was it a joy and oh how insistent was my friend that as well as my groceries I purchase a copy of the great Indian classic the Mahabharat , the Indian equivalent TV series of ‘Neighbors’ in Australia – and as much as an avid fan of our cultural epic, how my eyes opened to the cosmos and the world when I compared their cultural fare to our Grundy production which now sadly pales into insignificance, no disrespect of course to our Kylie and the musical gems of the post Neighbors period, especially ‘locomotion’ which must have helped many a fat aussie work off a couple of layers of beer sweat.
Yes, its a shame that Melbourne people are not exploring the gift and are in fact attacking the gift horse which has so much to offer and I wonder aloud if this may be an outward reflection of inherent ‘racism’ displayed within state and federal government policy otherwise we would have to assume the worst…. that many Australian’s are just plain lousy people.
The Melbourne Age is definitely lousy, they are not acting in a manner to solve the dilemma, they are adding fuel to the fire by publishing inflammatory articles suggesting racism is the core reason behind the dis-rest while failing to publish information which could otherwise be helpful in bringing Indians and Bogan Australians together, in a mutual bonding effort which would/could surely take the hard edge off the Melbourne train system and the perils in the western suburbs.
Enough is enough Melbourne!!!! – get a grip on yourself and make some human and conscious efforts to protect these people in your town – take them home for dinner – go to the football – but for gods sake don’t attack!
Here is number 589 of my ‘unpublished Letters to The Melbourne Age’ ( If a publisher is interested it could make an interesting book?)
Unpublished Letter to The Melbourne Age # 589: to letters@theage.com.au
Treatment of Indians No Surprise Really
During my frequent visits to Melbourne in recent years I have witnessed racist taunts toward Indians on the public transport system and heard direct accounts from Indian friends living in Melbourne.
The taunts are of a simplistic but nevertheless damaging nature, and related to skin color and the stealing of jobs from Australians. One could identify two areas of cause present which may need consideration in the repair of Australia’s now damaged reputation as a tolerant society, which on the whole I believe it to be.
As with the taxi industry and further to that now the retail chain industry ( supermarket checkouts and convenience stores for example) , a form of slave wages has emerged and individuals on restricted student visa’s become the prime targets and raison d’etre of such a situation. This is not a situation of the foreign students making, but a reality they will find on arrival to Australia, and can be put forward as contributing to the unsettling situation that has transpired. Enable invited students to participate in our economy on an equal footing or don’t entertain policies which are at odds with the mult-billion dollar international students business which has emerged over the past two decades. As I haven’t heard Kevin Rudd explore the causation of the dilemma, it may be time for him to now explore the streets of Melbourne and discover the reality for himself – it would be far more practical and helpful than sending diplomatic envoys to India or state governments ramping up security, which without knowing reason, could be said to add further tension to the situation.
The other factor at cause could be said to be the long term psychology underpinning the many waves of immigration that underscore Australian history, and the ritualistic bastardisation of the ‘new comers’ by the previous waves or progeny thereof. At some level a minority of people who have experienced early teething problems with their own resettlement, have a tendency to project this in unhealthy ways toward other people they identify as residing in their prior (or still current) economic and social predicament. How government(s) address such systemic causes which are a natural and yet embarrassing at times aspect of our population makeup is a complex question due for consideration.
Further Information:
Watch the Mahabharat TV series on youtube
Coffee Powered People
According to the last study for 2009 of the Bureau of Probable Statistics (BPS), sudden restriction of coffee supply to the people of Australia poses a greater and more immediate risk to national security and productivity than global terrorism or climate change, probably.
Releasing the results at a fold out card table outside the official precinct of the Copenhagen Summit, study author Frecht Van Spruchner, made these observations to a largely disinterested audience:
To bring the urgency of the risk closer to home, it is unlikely that this event (Copenhagen) would have been possible had not the participants been dosed heavily on coffee, Penny Wong has rushed passed here 4 times in just 90 minutes to fetch each time what appeared to be 1 litre coffee boosters from that starbucks store you can see from here. Kevin Rudd according to inside Chinese sources has been taking mega doses of Red Bull concealed in his Copenhagen show bag. The point we are making today is that Climate Change, or at least this conference, would not have happened if not for the mass acceleration effects of the drug caffeine. Take away the coffee and the conference and do some simple computer modelling and that’s instantly a saving of 5000 international flights, 5000 show bags, and the enormous electrical energy consumed in delivering the urgent message across the globe.
If that information and statistics is not sobering enough, the BPS study goes on to examine the immediate and longitudinal impact of a coffee crisis upon not just Australia, but the entire globe.
We identify a risk far greater than Climate Change and describe it as ‘Caffeinism’ or the political manipulation of global coffee supplies to achieve a premeditated and political effect on the target country. The map on our website shows the countries most at risk and Australia is clearly one of them. The embargo of just one days supply of coffee from producing nations would have a downstream impact on the economy at least 10 times more dire than the 2008/9 Global Financial Collapse, and our modeling suggests the national parliament under such a situation and without emergency supplies, would fail to contemplate let alone respond to such a national emergency. Its one thing for the major political parties to debate Climate Change but it needs to now be acknowledged that caffeine consumption is a primary driver of Climate Change and Caffeinism whether we like it or not will over shadow terrorism as this countries number one threat.
When pressed for a copy of the 423 page study, Spruchner said the information contained within is a matter of national security and is being examined by Senator Faulkner who will need to decide what parts if any, can be made public considering the isolated position of Australia and therefore the heightened risk.
The rest is up to the Rudd Cabinet, our job of collecting the information and modeling is over. One of our recommendations designed specifically to appeal to our leader is a national television campaign to create a wholesale switch in consumption to Green Tea…its easier for us to grow tea in Australia and it will endear us to our biggest trading partner China, but given the failure of Rudd’s past TV campaigns it may be a case of the ‘boy that cried wolf’, but we will have to wait and see.
Source: Coffee God Image
The Trouble with Modern Scrabble
People are saying that the game of scrabble has been corrupted and asking why this situation has occurred and when the relevant scrabble authorities will look at the problems causing arguments and upset every minute across the globe.
Scrabble:
verb (used with object)
1. to scratch or scrape, as with the claws or hands.
2. to grapple or struggle with or as if with the claws or hands.
3. to scrawl; scribble…..verb (used without object):
4. to scratch or dig frantically with the hands; claw (often fol. by at):
scrabbling at a locked door to escape the flames.
5. to jostle or struggle for possession of something; grab or collect
something in a disorderly way; scramble.
noun
6. a scratching or scraping, as with the claws or hands.
7. a scrawled or scribbled writing.
8. a disorderly struggle for possession of something; scramble.
After the fumble, there was a scrabble for the football.
History (wikipedia)
In 1938, architect Alfred Mosher Butts created the game as a variation on an earlier word game he invented called Lexiko. The two games had the same set of letter tiles, whose distributions and point values Butts worked out meticulously performing a frequency analysis of letters from various sources including The New York Times. The new game, which he called “Criss-Crosswords,” added the 15-by-15 game board and the crossword-style game play. He manufactured a few sets himself, but was not successful in selling the game to any major game manufacturers of the day.[5]
In 1948, James Brunot,[6] a resident of Newtown, Connecticut — and one of the few owners of the original Criss-Crosswords game — bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. Though he left most of the game (including the distribution of letters) unchanged, Brunot slightly rearranged the “premium” squares of the board and simplified the rules; he also changed the name of the game to “Scrabble,” a real word which means “to scratch frantically.” In 1949, Brunot and his family made sets in a converted former schoolhouse in Dodgington, a section of Newtown. They made 2,400 sets that year, but lost money.[7] According to legend, Scrabble’s big break came in 1952 when Jack Strauss, president of Macy’s, played the game on vacation. Upon returning from vacation, he was surprised to find that his store did not carry the game. He placed a large order and within a year, “everyone had to have one.”[8] In 1952, unable to meet demand himself, Brunot sold manufacturing rights to Long Island-based Selchow and Righter (one of the manufacturers who, like Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Company, had previously rejected the game). Selchow & Righter bought the trademark to the game in 1972[9] JW Spears began selling the game in Australia and the UK on January 19, 1955. The company is now a subsidiary of Mattel, Inc.[5] In 1986, Selchow and Righter sold the game to Coleco, who soon after went bankrupt. The company’s assets, including Scrabble and Parchesi were purchased by Hasbro.[9]
In 1984, Scrabble was turned into a daytime game show on NBC. Scrabble ran from July 1984 to March 1990, with a second run from January to June 1993. The show was hosted by Chuck Woolery.
So what is the controversy?
If you go to the ‘official’ website
http://www.mattelscrabble.com/en/adults/index.html
And enter the letters ‘ZED’ and surprisingly the computer returns ‘allowed’….if you dont believe me here it is:
While obviously this was never the intention of Alfred Butts the changes in the official rules seem to allow this, no doubt causing arguments constantly across the globe and for what reason? ZED and the likes of it clearly are not words but possibly allowed to increase the possible word score but at what expense to the English language.
While the world argues bitterly about Climate Change and such I have seen no media coverage of this outrageous situation and an eerie silence on the issue from the manufacturers and international scrabble associations that have allowed the rot to set in this classic game.
Every word counts indeed!
“Farewell Aunty Jack….will ya ever be back?”
I haven’t heard much news from Aunty lately?,
not that im too concerned, someone mentioned she was going away,
was wondering though if a party or someone, would consider the idea of an independant national broadcaster?
Aunty II has too much of a Hollywood Blockbuster ring to it…and the board of the ABC could litigate its commercial concerns…
Uncle has also been used media-phorically….someone else can come up with a name!
it could just be a cheap web based self editing and publishing system operated by a robot or team of web agents ( not like the CIA or a reporter)…a socially reformed HAL type technology could manage the news ‘thing’. It could be linked in a gooey fashion to the HTML version of the Australian Constitution – or a revised version that could be interrogated and refreshed by news ‘thing’…if something odd but new ‘happens’ which is not in the constitution ( or in it) “Hey Look at this!!”…….. “i’m just the ‘news thing’ robot but an amendment was just made which will/may/did/did not effect your human rights….the ‘thing’ would probably drive us crazy so there should be an ‘emergency’ button clearly labelled ‘OFF’. They would appease the Big Brother 1984 conspiratorists and would also be a plus for Rudd and Wong pushing right along the ETS and Climate Change scheme, saving electricity by switching ‘OFF’ may be the perfect Climate Change solution simultaneously giving a rest to an otherwise confused and mis-informed planet. Run with that one I don’t want any credit, maybe some free solar panels for the roof.
Provided we hire enough think tanks to think of it, it could be brought in under budget, otherwise it could be part of the next STIMULUS package…that’s of course if we reach a consensus on what ‘news’ IS and cater equally and demo-crate-ally in an agreed set of social baskets: sport, advertising, nostalgia and of course blood and guts – exempt all of these categories from the definition of NEWS and we might be down to ten minutes of gobbily gook IN BOX flux getting down to the real questions. …quite a paradigm shift…. anything ‘old’ stored in an accessible cabinet marked ‘old news’ and THEN IF automated report-bot agents wrongly submit already filed information, flagged OLD, and deleted before it reaches the population. Some sort of cyber-quarantine to maintain the freshness of information. Call it the New Economy of News…and make it accessible and brief enough that it’s not worth selling.
Massive cost saving’s in theory through firstly the repetition and re-broadcasting of ’same’ information, anyone or thing reported on the news would therefore need to be ‘different’ or ‘new’…possibly connected to the current misleading industry terminology ‘news’. Automatic criticism the massive loss of jobs, union outcrys, debates in parliament…yes yes yes it would have to be processed through some ‘consenus building’ channel, a global panel of new news experts to engineer and reshape the paradigm…. easily justified if the scope of existing departmental responsibilities are widened (or duplicated and then changed just a bit) …for example…’Closing the Gap’ ….continues to address indigenous social inequality and then miraculously widens to other parts of the community……Opening the Gap and removing the blockage to relevant and useful information sharing …without all the crap…..and if the government wants to earn extra revenue (provided Oz-Bot or such free channel ever happened) , package and sell the existing arrangement and said subsidiaries…1, 2, make up some more of course and then sell them too…7, 9, and 12 should be left vacant (as they are now) leaving 3, 4, 5, 6 and 11…five channels left to puff up the public purse just nicely – thankyou for the change. Still, all of this is just an idea which probably happened earlier or someone somewhere forgot to send an address….or cheekily maybe Aunty is ready to graduate and stand briefly amongt all great media junkies, and other purveyors of different views….
On that note dear Aunty you are big round and fat, but we love ya anyway!
And then just in:
New Matilda’s Ben Eltham reports on the AN Smith Lecture in Journalism at Melbourne University last night. ABC’s Mark Scott delivers a relevant lesson, applicable no doubt to his own empire – the ABC.
“The media Caesars of today seem largely out of solutions — and instead challenge reality by seeking to deny a revolution that has already taken place by attempting to use a power that no longer exists.”
The speech largely proceeded in this vein as Scott took great pains to describe the bleeding obvious. Newspapers are struggling. Classifieds are migrating online. Young people are deserting old media. Twitter and Facebook are cool.
“When you look back on it, some fundamental weaknesses in the traditional publishing and broadcasting model were evident long before the internet revolution.”
It’s true that media policy in this country has been dominated by vested interests:
“not much more than a tawdry chaos of compromises designed to appease the moguls,”
…as Scott phrased it. It’s also true that journalism can no longer rely on the succor of rich families to sustain itself in the face of imploding revenues.
THE LECTURE
Why is the ABC presenter sorry for expressing a valid gesture in relation to polik speak and its brands including ETS? :
ABC presenter sorry for ‘crazy’ gesture
This will Kill You…but at least it’s free!
The package insert for the Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 Monovalent Vaccine manufactured by Novartis has been leaked on the Internet. According to that package insert, the vaccine (based on an earlier vaccine product known as Fluvirin) is known to cause a whole host of very nasty side effects such as guillain-barre syndrome, vasculitis, anaphylactic shock and even death.
Of course anyone who has been studying vaccine side effects already knows that it causes all of these things, but the story here is that the insert for the swine flu vaccine itself is admitting all of these things. The insert says that it was updated during September 2009, so it reflects the very latest information.
You can read the package insert for this vaccine for yourself right here…..
The following is a list of some of the very nasty side effects that the vaccine package insert admits to:
*Local injection site reactions (including pain, pain limiting limb movement, redness, swelling, warmth, ecchymosis, induration)
*Hot flashes/flushes
*Chills
*Fever
*Malaise
*Shivering
*Fatigue
*Asthenia
*Facial edema.
*Immune system disorders
*Hypersensitivity reactions (including throat and/or mouth edema)
*In rare cases, hypersensitivity reactions have lead to anaphylactic shock and death
*Cardiovascular disorders
*Vasculitis (in rare cases with transient renal involvement)
*Syncope shortly after vaccination
*Digestive disorders
*Diarrhea
*Nausea
*Vomiting
*Abdominal pain.
*Blood and lymphatic disorders
*Local lymphadenopathy
*Transient thrombocytopenia.
*Metabolic and nutritional disorders
*Loss of appetite.
*Arthralgia
*Myalgia
*Myasthenia
*Nervous system disorders
*Headache
*Dizziness
*Neuralgia
*Paraesthesia
*Febrile convulsions
*Guillain-Barré Syndrome
*Myelitis (including encephalomyelitis and transverse myelitis)
*Neuropathy (including neuritis)
*Paralysis (including Bell’s Palsy)
*Respiratory disorders
*Dyspnea
*Chest pain
*Cough
*Pharyngitis
*Rhinitis
*Stevens-Johnson syndrome
*Pruritus
*Urticaria
*Rash (including non-specific, maculopapular, and vesiculobulbous).
This news alarm was bought to you by:
If you were already asleep prior to this announcement and have already taken the vaccine don’t panic – you are probably already dead and just experiencing a bad dream!
Latest Invitation:
Latest News Sept. 28, 2009
Dr. Len Horowitz files pandemic charges against
Rockefeller.
LOS ANGELES, CA — Drug-industry investigators have
Uncovered documents exposing an international drug ring,
Operating from New York City, is behind the H1N1 swine flu
Fright and vaccination preparations.
Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz and Sherri Kane, an investigative
Journalist, have released evidence in legal affidavits that
Leaders of a private global biotechnology “trust”
Are behind the pandemic flu, including its origin and
Alleged prevention via vaccinations. Their documents, being
Sent by attorneys to the FBI this week, evidence
Industrialists are operating a crime ring within the
“Partnership for New York City” (PNYC), and are
Behind the pandemic’s
Creation, media persuasions, vaccination preparations, and
Health official promotions.
“David Rockefeller’s trust, that engages several
Powerful partners on Wall Street, including media moguls
Ruppert Murdock, Morton Zuckerman, Thomas Glocer, and former
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York, Jerry Speyer, are implicated in advancing
Global genocide,” Dr. Horowitz wrote to FBI directors.
“This ‘partnership’ controls biotechnology
Research and development globally. Health commerce
Internationally is also controlled virtually entirely by
This trust that also exercises near complete control over
Mainstream media to promote/propagandize its products and
Services for the drug cartel’s organized crime. This
Trust, in essence, makes or breaks medical and natural
Healing markets, primarily through the mass media companies
And propaganda it wields for social engineering and market
Building,” Dr. Horowitz wrote.
Among the revelations from the Horowitz-Kane research are
Those linking Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties,
Inc., and the 9-11 terrorist attacks, to the drug
Cartel’s’ geopolitical, economic, and population
Reduction activities. Mr. Silverstein, leaser of the World
Trade Center who authorized to have Building-7
“pulled” [detonated] is a chief suspect in the
“9-11 truth” investigation. Silverstein is
Currently landlord and co-partner in the biotechnology trust
Founded by David Rockefeller and implicated by these new
Discoveries.
Given the unprecedented nature and urgency of these
Findings, Dr. Horowitz has posted his affidavit for public
Review on FLUscam.com, hoping wide spread dissemination will
Prompt governments worldwide to cease mass vaccination
Preparations to avoid becoming accessories.
“The last time I contacted the FBI I warned them about
The impending anthrax attacks one week before the first
Mailings were
Announced in the press,” Dr. Horowitz recalled.
“It took them 6 months to respond. When they did, they
Made me a suspect in the mailings. This time I am warning
The Justice Department a month before the deadliest genocide
In history. I’m praying they’ll take kindly to my
Appeal for a PNYC investigation, and Court-ordered
Injunction, to stop the vaccinations for public protection.
[link to www.theflucase.com]