Horse - Uninforming the World since 1997

Horse 907 - Green and Gold

2008-08-18T10:25:00.002+10:00

Australia finally officially adopted green and gold as its sporting colours with the assent of the Govenor-General Sir Ninian Stephen in 1984. The exact colours were specified as being Pantone Matching System numbers 116C and 348C... but why? The common belief is that the colours were chosen because they are the dominant colours of Australia's floral emblem, the Golden Wattle, but I suspect that the reason is more pragmatic.

I've found references as far back as 1899 when the Australian cricket captain Joe Darling walked into a suit shop in London and asked for 15 green blazers piped in gold trim for the Australian touring side to wear. The baggy green it would seem actually predates Australia as a nation. It was officially adopted in 1908.

The Australiasian Olympic Team comprising of both Australians and New Zealanders wore gold and green at the 1908 London and 1912 Stockholm games.

The Wallabies who previously had played in blue or white, either chose gold after beating the All-Blacks 3-0 in a test series in 1928/9 or in 1931 with the commencement of the Bledisloe Cup.
Almost in defiance which is why I still don't know who took it up first, the Kangaroos played in green and gold hoops in 1928 against England. The fact that one would want to distance themselves from the other is logical but I don't know which came first.

Certainly by the time that the Melbourne Olympics of 1956 came around, the green and gold was more or less permanent and by the time of Sir Jack Brabham winning the Formula One World Driver's Championship in a car he designed and built himself it was well and truly established - his car proudly bore British Racing Green with a gold stripe down the centre.

The 2008 Australian Olympic Team however walked into the stadium in a flashy blue and white affair. Whilst the opening ceremony doesn't need the national sporting colours, the designers still succeeded in producing a really crap looking uniform.

Horse 906 - First Day Back at School

2008-08-17T14:01:00.002+10:00

Sydney 0 - Melbourne 0

On a night where the wind cut through the crowd like a shining scimitar through so many soldiers, last night's affair was cold and clumsy. For Sydney's efforts they were denied by the woodwork twice and Melbourne were beaten by an invisible forcefield, which surrounded the goal - put it this way, it certainly was not Sydney's skill that kept them at bay for 90 minutes.

Payne and Cole made their debuts last night and two more players on the bench also made their first start in the 15. Bridge was still away in China after the Olyroos campaign and the "marquee" player John Aloisi remains injured. So with a depleted squad, Sydney were up against it. Or were they...

This game was played in the air, with more chips than you get with a piece of fish. Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat looked like a thug, and pretty well much cancelled both Corica and Payne up front.
At the other end, baldy-man Net Fabiano really only had Bolton to bet most of the time and he failed in that.

The newspapers described this as "entertaining" but me thinks that has more to do with the fact that they were watching froma little cosy press box. Down in the stands we must have missed that bit. Bore-draw? Not really, but not exactly the catfight we should have sen either.

Horse 905 - Lolly Water Cube

2008-08-14T07:38:00.000+10:00

I should have realised this, but the reason as why so many world records have fallen at these Olympic Games... and it took NPR to find it:
The Water Cube pool also has 10 lanes instead of eight. Waves churned up during races don't bounce back into the swimming lanes. Waves that reach the sides are siphoned off by perforated gutters.
The Water Cube pool is close to 10 feet deep. That's 3 feet deeper than the pools of the past. The lane lines that separate swimmers are called wave eaters because they dissipate turbulent water. The goal is to make the water as flat and clear as possible, despite the churning that swimmers create.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93478073

What? Can I suggest that the "Olympic Pool" in the water cube is not really an Olympic Pool. I always thought that an "Olympic Pool" was only 8 lanes wide, and if this thing is deeper than what sort of rubbish is this? Don't they have Olympic standards for this sort of thing?

What happens to the records of the great Ian Thorpe? How about Lionel Rose? Ok, he was a boxer but what do you think Dawn Fraser would have to say? Already Michael Phelps is being touted as the "greatest Olympian of all time" by winning his 10th and 11th gold medals. Not to take anything away from the man because he did have to beat other competitors but he's won these latest ones in a great big smelly cheat-pool.

Should any of the records have any standing? What next? The Mens 196km Marathon? The Super 16m platform dive? And yet the IOC has the nerve to tell the comptitors not take drugs? If you're going to start changing the games themselves I say it scarcely matters.

What not just go the who shebang and have the Ultra-Drugged-Up to the Eyeballs Games? I want to see someone run the 89m sprint in under 4.4 seconds.

Horse 904 - No Longer a Billionaire

2008-08-13T09:36:00.002+10:00

XE.com tells me this morning that:
1.00 AUD = 11.0121 ZWD
What's going on here? I thought I was a billionaire...

http://www.rbz.co.zw/pdfs/2008Julymps/mps.pdf
Notice: The Zimbabwe government redenominated the ZWD on August 1, 2008 at a rate of 10,000,000,000 old ZWD to 1 new ZWD. No new currency code has been issued, but the old ZWD currency remains legal tender until December 31, 2008.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has announced that it is going to fire Dr. Evil as its chief currency controller. No longer will it be possible to announce that you're a multi-billionaire when buying the local newspaper - how much is it? ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS

Inflation was running so rampant that it got as high as 2,200,000% (2.2 million percent), in fact it got so bad that the physical supply of cash just couldn't keep up with the cost of goods. Whilst it may sound appealing to have a net worth of $100 billion dollars, in Zimbabwe the amount was not enough to even buy a single loaf of bread!

The Zimbabwean central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), has mismanaged this hyper-inflation and has ignored advice from the International Monetary fund (IMF), instead choosing to print money as if it were toilet paper (which went for $417 ZWD per sheet, not per roll, in March of 2006, according to a New York Times article). As more money is added to the supply, the value of each individual unit of currency falls, until the currency becomes worthless.

Sothen, what is the solution? Generally inflation can be caused by too much money chasing too few goods, and one possible solution would be to increase the number and amount of goods produced. The other, more obvious solution would be to decrease (or at least stabilize) the supply of money. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. This is especially true when your leader is President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country for 28 years and was recently condemned by the international community for waging a campaign of violence against his political opponents. Mugabe is now threatening to loot businesses owned by foreigners, especially from the U.K., blaming them for his country's economic woes, all the while printing cash like there's no tommorrow.

Horse 903 - Triple Eight

2008-08-08T08:08:00.000+10:00

oops

Ok so the date is 8-8-8. It's lucky according to the Chinese and for deliberately that reason why the Olympic Games "officially" start tonight. Having said all of that, a far more interesting Triple Eight is the point of discussion today.

Triple Eight Motorsport who run the factory Vauxhall team in the BTCC interestingly also happen to engineer a Ford team (Vodafone) in Australia's V8 Supercar team (go figure). For this year's Bathurst 1000, 888 are bringing reigning British Touring Car champion Fabrizio Giovanardi for a tilt at the crown. Basically, Australians beware... this guy is good.

The Italian, who has eight top-line touring car titles to his name in the European, British, Italian and Spanish championships, will contest the Australian V8 touring car round at Mount Panorama with Team Vodafone, who have won the event for the last two years.

He had planned to attend the race to watch his new teammate Matt Neal take part in the event, but his VX Racing team arranged the deal with their sister Triple Eight squad in Australia. Giovanardi will partner Briton Marc Hynes in a Ford Falcon, while previous winners Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup will share the team's other car.

Meanwhile 888's other front line driver in the BTCC, Matt Neal is also racing the Bathurst 1000 this year, driving for arch enemies Holden in the Supercheap Auto Racing team. That's not going to end in tears, is it?

Horse 902 - When Journos Steal

2008-08-01T15:15:00.004+10:00

The difference between you and I is that you get deadlines and I write headlines... er...
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/public-transport-better-on-your-bike/2008/07/31/1217097434118.html

WHAT does it say about Sydney that a 60-year-old journalist - on foot - is only just beaten to the city from Ryde by an express train and a limited-stops bus?
It says the following: The Sydney Morning Herald, the usual bastian of news reporting in this fair city that's built around a harbour has taken to stealing content ideas from BBC's Top Gear.

John Huxley, the Herald's associate editor, charged in to the CBD during Monday morning's peak hour in 80 minutes - almost the same time as thousands of commuters - using nothing but a pair of running shoes.
He'd need to run. I figure that the average running speed is about 6mph. Since the distance from Ryde to the city is 11.4 miles according to Google Maps, in 80 minutes he moves at roughly 8.55mph. For a 60 year old that's really moving.

It was the most revealing moment in the Herald's inaugural Great Commuter Race. Six reporters, six modes of transport, one destination. We wanted to find the fastest way from the leafy street in the North Shore electorate of Ryde where the Transport Minister, John Watkins, lives, to Parliament House on Macquarie Street. This is, after all, where he has to commute to each day if he is going to fix the mess that is Sydney's transport system.
We tried to make the race as realistic as possible by including in our calculations the time it took to walk to bus stops and alight from trains. And some of the results were surprising.

We had a team each on a train (there is no "Ryde" train station) and a bus, we had a motorist, a scooter-rider, and we had two of our more athletic staff under their own steam - a cyclist and, of course, "Hux", a marathon veteran.
The Hux? Some say that he expresses his feelings through his helmet... All we know is, he doesn't look happy taking public transport. Otherwise he's known as The Stig.

Ok, maybe that's enough bashing of the SMH... even the SMH admits when they've stolen something:
And the Transport Minister's verdict? "Your Top Gear-style transport challenge clearly shows the diverse travel options Sydney residents use to get to work every day."
My verdict? Watch out next week when the SMH drives across Africa, checks out Ford's new RS Focus, it puts celebrity Alexander Downer around it's track and let's The Stig loose in an Audi R10LMP... and on that bombshell, Goodnight!

May in a Mercedes GLK raced Hammond on a bicycle, The Stig using public transport and Clarkson by boat from Kew to London City. The Stig started on a bus, got on the Tube before taking the DLR. Series Ten, Episode Five

Horse 901 - How Is It A $12bn Disaster If Not A Cent Has Been Spent Yet?

2008-07-31T11:15:00.002+10:00

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/metro-a-12b-disaster-says-buried-report/1229868.aspx

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/07/29/1217097241025.html?feed=fairfaxdigitalxml

There are very few thing for which I generally agree with governments but the decision to bury the Steer Report is something which I whole heartedly agree with. The reasons for this I think are as follows:
Among the criticisms is that the north-western half of the metro would service a low-density and fairly affluent area that is wedded to its cars. With 30 kilometres of tunnel, it would be hugely expensive with no guarantee of high patronage, the report warns. Elsewhere in the world, metros are specifically designed to move people between high-density residential areas and employment centres such as the CBD.
"The north-west metro concept stretches into a 30-kilometre tunnelled route into low-density, high-income suburbs, remote from the congested western corridor, the busiest in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area," the report says. "It would be a brave decision to assume that car users in the low-density north-west can be converted to metro users in large numbers."

Mr Steel, perhaps I should tell you the story of a certain city on the other side of the world. A city of which you might be familiar with. A city whose reknown is known the world over for its forward thinking when it came to underground railways. I refer of course to London and THE Underground. That little rail network which you helped turn around... does it ring a bell for you?

Between 1935 and 1940, the then London Passenger Transport Board spent a staggering £42.2m on expanding the Underground. Bear in mind that this was: a) during the height of the depression and b) breaking ground into areas where the network had not yet been. Lines were built in seemingly open fields in some cases; not because of the immediate economic viability, but of the expected physical expansion of the city itself. Admittedly a little thing known as the Blitz halted expansion but you'd expect that.

Laying Underground lines in areas where the population was expected to grow to rather than merely following the existing trends, requires more testicular fortitude than the plan which the Iemma Government has tabulated. Bear in mind that a line to Castle Hill has been promised since 1891 so I guess that 117 years to do something is actually on schedule.

"It is likely that these assumptions are leading to modelled estimates of transfer to metro over an unrealistically broad area, especially from car." The Government expects the north-west metro to attract 25 per cent of its demand from a shift from private cars, which the Steer report calls a "high proportion". "Demand models sometimes significantly overestimate the propensity to mode shift."

With the Rudd Government announcing a Carbon Trading Scheme on top of existing petrol prices, and the fact that the North-West of Sydney when asked had actually asked for a rail link to the city before the M2 was built and the results that the M2 is now a 30km carpark every morning and evening, that the estimates would be about right. Certainly when I take a train home is crowded to the hilt.

"There is a risk of overcrowding on the CityRail network as demand is rising at rates, if they continue, [that] will lead to a serious deterioration in … reliability." But the metro failed to address Sydney's busiest corridors, and "its ability to relieve what will become very congested CityRail routes is limited".

So what is it Mr Steel? You can't have overcrowding and say that "Demand models sometimes significantly overestimate the propensity to mode shift" at the same time can you? I would have thought that if you overestimate traffic flows then you'd design the system to cope with those estimates and thus future-proof the system. Something which in London as a result of your own damn recommendations, they are currently doing with the Crossrail projects, which I should point out have had £16bn allocated or more than double that of Sydney.

About the only person talking sense is Justin Kelly, who is quoted as saying:
"Mr Steel's work did not adequately address the question of how to deliver on the Government's election commitment to deliver rail services to the north-west by 2015. The Government has a clear commitment to deliver rail services to Castle Hill by 2015 and Rouse Hill by 2017. So when advice was received that took it away from the plan we'd outlined to the people of the north-west, it was never going to be accepted."

What? A government talking about delivering on a promise? Surely you jest. No? If not, then Mr Kelly, you should be Premier for actually wanting to be answerable to the good and fair people of NSW.

Horse 900 - Huge Delays in Service

2008-07-25T12:27:00.002+10:00

Before I go any further I should like to point out that I spent most of last night carefully considering my first words for this edition of Horse because I realised that they had to be quite prolific, so then, here it goes:
Welcome to Horse 900.

I suppose that it's time that I should give an update in my webcomic which up until this point has not actually been posted. The fact of the matter is that there have been lost of pages actually produced, but for those which are in postable order, there can't be any more than about 120.

The problem stems from the fact that I didn't really have a scanner to begin with and the details of my life being more or less entirely different to what it was even just 12 months ago, have mean that the production has been hideously behind schedule to the point where I didn't even bother to post the first page. Mind you, the techniques for producing a page have changed markedly, and now I have the problem that things don't quite match anymore.

So whilst there may be snippets from time to time, there won't be anything solid until I find a suitable host... sorry.

Horse 898 - (additional)

2008-07-22T09:14:00.003+10:00

Last night, that paragon of up-to-the-minute information Today Tonight, ran a story informing us that Kath and Kim has fallen flat with an initial audience and that NBC intend to remake the pilot but only this time, they want to do a "slicker" job of it.

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no and NO! For the sake of humanity, just run the original on telly you empty-headed nitwits, FEH!

... and thankyou Today Tonight for running a story which I wrote about in my blog a week ago after reading about it on the internet TEN DAYS AGO. Nice to see that in the event of something major happening like maybe a nuclear holocaust, or a pandemic or even the rapture or something that we won't find out about it from you until late next week, because you've run the highly important story about "which washing powder is really the best value" or "I can't tell the difference between these store brand biscuits and the 3 POUND FIRE AXE THAT'S BEEN THRUST THROUGH MY SKULL"

Horse 899 - Same Old England - Always Losing

2008-07-22T09:12:00.000+10:00

Ok so maybe England losing a Test Match isn't the most remarkable thing in the world, nor is it all that unexpected but when I got to work this morning let's just say that I was quietly shocked that they actually forced South Africa to bat again, because early into day four, England's situation looked perilous.

In their first dig, England struggled to find anything with the bat and none of their players even made it past 50; the best of the batsmen was Kevin Pietersen who edged it behind at only 45. In what would have been even a rather poor one-day total, England only managed 203 off of 53 overs.

In reply South Africa made 522 with both Prince and de Villiers finding centuries with 149 and a massive 174 respectively. Faced with a total of 319 to even force South Africa to bat again, England was always going to find this a difficult task at best and it looked like they were digging in to salvage a draw.

England went into this test with five bowlers which let Flintoff back into the side; consequently it meant that Tim Ambrose was batting at number six, which he looked quite out of his depth at - still he still made 36 off of a patient 94 balls. Cook's 60 at the beginning of the innings laid down the foundation but again, the England scorecard sort of dribbles rather than yells. What on earth Pietersen was doing in the second innings made no sense to me, his 13 came only off of 5 balls, and three of those were smacked to the boundary. Some rescue attempt was made by Broad who at 67 found himself stranded at the close of innings. In all England did force South Africa to bat again, but only needing 7, which they made in 4 minutes.

It's not that the England side is terrible, because if we remember vack to the first test at Lord's they did declare at 593-8, so the problem is not to do with the batting line up. It's more to do with England's lack of bite in the bowling department. At Lord's they were able to force South Afica to bat again because they'd posted such a big total but going into Headingley, choosing five bowlers meant that they created a longer tail which is fine if the bowlers are going rip apart the opposition which England isn't currently capable of doing.

A 1-0 lead in the series is very little to do South Africa's pluck, but more about England's impotence.

Horse 896 - (additional)

2008-07-20T14:00:00.000+10:00

Horse 898 - Krap and Kim

2008-07-14T15:46:00.003+10:00

http://buzzsugar.com/1769136

If you want to make a truly horrid television program, why not do what so many have done before and give it to America to produce. Red Dwarf, The Office, The Kumars at Number 42 and now Kath and Kim are being remade for an "American" audience. In reality, that's the euphemism for an "unfunny" television show.

Take The Office - a perfectly understated British comedy which didn't need a laugh track and in fact was heightened by the semi-dead silence in which humour was dripped through the filter of black comedy via the delivery of verbal gaffes, unconscious racism, sexism and other social faux-pas. It was the very uncomfortableness of the show that made it funny, yet when produced for an American audience, this was replaced by a hideous pastiche of put down and sarcasm - truly the lowest form of wit and in this case rather poorly executed.

Kath & Kim is a different take on the comedy of the uncomfortable, but the filter is that of vanity through the eyes of characters who are most definately not high-class at all but believe otherwise. Although I think that the show is as funny as cholera, Kath & Kim plays on what former PM John Howard would have called "aspirationals" or what current PM Kevin Rudd would like to tell you are "working families". It is the sensibilites of decidedly ordinary people who actually think that they are brilliant and special and wait for it, glamorous, when they are very obviously not. Yet when I read an American preview for the new show I find this:
For one thing, it's great to see Molly Shannon with a sassy, blonde haircut and some seriously out-there clothes. For another, I'm loving the attitude Selma Blair's bringing to her role, falling somewhere between entitled princess and petulant teenager.

Or as Rove would say... what the..?

Sassy? Attitude? What in blue blazes is going on here? Oh look, there goes THE POINT whizzing past and sadly NBC, you missed it. It is only Kath & Kim themselves who would actually believe that they are "sassy" and/or possess "attitude", you can't hire "nice" or even "noice" people for the show because the whole premise falls down flat. THE POINT is that Kath & Kim really are horrible people, trying to somehow hide this and not altogether very successfully.

This show is destined to ride the very fast train to oblivion very very quickly, and I hope that it sinks without a trace because having a crappily remade version of an already tedious TV show that becomes popular merely saps even more viewing time from screens which should be better served with motor racing, decent crime or dramas or better yet... comedy that is actually funny.

Horse 897 - Mr Iemma Needs Training

2008-07-11T14:33:00.003+10:00

Lots of stabs and violence will give this blog a higher rating:
Stab stab stab stab bash bash hit hit violence bomb kill knife gun uzi war terroists Al Qaeda crash wallop wham crash thud.

Created by OnePlusYou

Done.

Somebody needs to give Mr Iemma a swift sharp boot to the head. Apart from trying to sell of MY electric companies without MY permission, he announced plans for another two lanes to be added to the M2. What a joke.

http://www.aptnsw.org.au/christie

Back in 2001 the NSW State Government commissioned a report to look at Sydney's transport infrastructure. In which the report demanded for immediate attention, the construction of a heavy gauge railway line through Sydney's north-west, a high speed line to the Central Coast, a second underground line through the city and the addition of an outer ring line through the south west.

The Mosman Daily, the Manly Daily and that bastion of reportage the Daily Telegraph, all called for a Metro line to be built through the North Shore and across the Spit after the bridge ceased to work which caused extensive delays.

Even the State Rail Authority a few years ago ran a series of adverts informing us that one train "drove" 2000 cars off the road. With petrol prices set to head to $2/L within the year and $8/L within the next 10 years, I would have though that a progressive government would employ that little used device called "vision" and actually do something for the people who elected it in the first place.

Instead we have a government which is almost leaderless, in which it's members think that the best thing to argue over are misdemeanours at nightclubs, all the while the "good and fair people of NSW" are being shafted royally. 96 years ago, the then McGowen Government set in place the necessary vision to build a bridge across Sydney Harbour, which is still very heavily used today. I note that the time until actual completion of 20 years is still very much government policy.

If a series of railways were to be built, then surely the ideal place would be to build them up the dates of our politicians who obviously must have some vast expanse up there, because for the last 7 years and counting they've had their collective heads wedged firmly up there and continue to talk out of them, and still we've not had very much stuff built at all.

Horse 896 - Big Bad Barry

2008-07-08T11:57:00.003+10:00

Big Bad Barry Bashing Bastards Brought Barry Bogus Blacklist

Of course you can't get away with it now but back in the 70s and 80s when bashing your opponents for fun and profit was not only in fashion but considered the height of politeness.

I think of Collingwood's poor Phil Carman who was suspended after striking Hawthorn's Michael Tuck in the '77 semi. That little indiscretion saw him miss the tied '77 final but because the VFL considered the replay to be the same fixture, he missed that as well. Quite a penalty for a simple punch in the face.

I can still remember the sight from the outer when in the '89 VFL final, in one of the toughest grand finals in the league's history, Dermot Brereton was lined up at the centre bounce by Geelong Football Club's Mark Yeates and hit with a solid shirtfront. Severely winded and concussed, he was attended to by trainers, he began to vomit before jogging back into the play. Only minutes later in the game, he marked and kicked a huge goal from about 65m out. He would finish with three goals in a game that Hawthorn would win by six points.
Dermie even featured in the song "Dermot Brereton is a Thug"

Sam "You Know It Makes Sense" Kekovich ruled his half-back line so much the nothing moved without his written permission. In 1968 he won North Melbourne's "best and fairest" medal and then was suspended for two matches after breaking someone's nose in the finals series.

The game needs enforcers like Barry Hall. Playing rough and giving people a right thumping on the field is part and parcel for the game isn't it? In this year's State of Origin III between NSW and Queensland, the lacklustre play was very much enhanced by a state of Queensbury Rules decending on the field. It's what the kiddies want to see, a real barney.
"Peace through violence, harmony through brutality and getting everyone to shut-up and behave just like us or they’ll cop a boot up the date and a fist of fives."

What do we expect from footballers? How are we supposed to have hard men if they can't be hard anymore? Do we bring in doilys and frills to AFL, when we need laserz, Godzilla, Shoop da Woop and IT'S OVER 9000!!!?

Horse 895 - $5500 Is A Small Price To Pay For Annoying Catholics

2008-07-03T11:22:00.002+10:00

This week The NSW Government (and convniently just before Parliament closes for several months), passed a law to stop behaviour that "causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event". Police will have "discretionary" powers (ie open slather) to arrest and/or fine people; all the while, the NSW Bar Association is reported as saying that the laws are "unnecessary and repugnant".

Protest groups, Civil libertarians and the NSW Bar Association have criticised the powers, which will allow police to issue $5,500 fines to anyone deemed to be "causing annoyance" during World Youth Day events, which run in Sydney from July 15 to 20.

The popular but ignorant argument against the law is based on the assumption that people in Australia a right to free speech and to protest, when in reality neither of these have ever been tested at common law. They may be assumed to exist but common law is all non-specific.

Equally, I argue that any law which also relies on non-specific, vague terms such as "annoyance" must be bad law. I suspect that many courts would struggle to define "annoyance"; I could not find a general, stand-alone legal definition for it. NSW Premier Morris Iemma said he did not think the term "annoyance" was too broad and there were no plans to review the powers.

This means in reality that there is a law with an undefined civil term, for which a breach results in a very steep civil penalty. Because of the police's "discretionary" powers, it is now entirely to down to nothing more than the opinion of what the individual police officer finds as an "annoyance" as you whether you cop a nice bill for 5.5K

Am I allowed to fine the NSW Government $5,500 because I find the law annoying?

Horse 894 - The Day the Music Died

2008-07-02T09:54:00.002+10:00

iFive - Dead.
1. Nil
2. Nil
3. Nil
4. Nil
5. Nil
...and never again
To read the rest of this, you'll need to highlight it.

I no longer have issues with copyright, or the legitimacy of the songs that I own, nor of the content of those songs. For this week, 95% of my DVDs, most of my comics, and the entire of my music collection found its way to Seven Hills Waste Transfer Centre. Irrespective of whether the content was good, bad or indifferent, it was just easier to pitch the lot than to bother to sort it.

Watching two crates of CDs which amounted to a collection spanning 20 years, and a box of DVDs and comics also suffer the same fate as they fell to the bottom of a pit was quite cathartic. I note that it took 8 minutes for the MP3s to be deleted from my PC but just two strikes of a 4 pound sledgehammer to render my iPod totally useless (I hadn't seen inside an iPod before and now I've seen one mangled).

I don't know if this is an unintended consequence, but I've found that in the days that followed (including this morning) I can't listen to music of any sort on the radio and any enjoyment I would have got from it has been drained to the point of zero.

I guess this is one those "Lot's Wife" moments for I don't intend to look back on this at all. Having said this, I now have to endure to stupid chatter of people on the train on the way home from work.

Horse 893 - Paying the Bills

2008-06-27T10:42:00.002+10:00

Not that it matters much to the company but the third richest man in the world, Bill Gates, has decided to hang his hat up for the last time. Several times the world's biggest company, Microsoft gained its fortune through two keen oppotunities - namely creating MS-DOS for IBM and then having Big Blue not retain exclusive right and secondly, stealing the kernel for a GUI from Xerox's photocopiers which would form the basis of the original Windows.

It has to be said through all of this, that Bill started in a priviledged home and then had the necessary business sense to ensure that the "luck" went his way. Starting in 1975, Microsoft developed and sold BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800, a machine with no screen or keyboards but a series with 8 switches on the front.

Gates' "vision" of "a workstation running our software onto every desk and eventually in every home" though grandiose, eventually reached about 90% of market saturation. As a result the company has made has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires.

I don't think this spells the end for the company. As an organisation that "eats its own dog food" they have a ready-made batch of testers, and given existing market share, it would be very difficult to mess it up even if Bill has gone.

Horse 892 - Programmed Madness

2008-06-26T15:22:00.001+10:00

Just when you think you've heard it all, a computer failure closed down Sydney's M5 East tunnel at around 7:10am yesterday (25th June), leaving traffic to bank up for kilometres in both directions.

NSW Roads Minister Eric Roozendaal said the failure meant safety systems such as the tunnel's controversial ventilation were not working. "It's a catastrophic failure in terms of the computer. I understand that system has shut down, and if we have that system not operating, it's not safe to bring people into the tunnel."
This statement is fair enough in all honesty but just when you think the situation couldn't get any worse this little doozy happpened.

When asked what the RTA was doing to rectify the problem, the Roozendaal indicated the government did not have direct supervision of the tunnel and therefore was directly responsible: "It's worth pointing out that the tunnel is actually operated and maintained by Bilfinger Berger, a private company."

So what does this all mean? Well it means that Eric Roozendaal and the RTA are doing exactly what they're employed to do, and that is to direct and shift traffic. Though I wonder whether political traffic and road traffic are enitrely separate.

Horse 891 - Coloured for Speed

2008-06-25T11:52:00.003+10:00

The following shot is from the currently running film Speed Racer.

It is without doubt the most colourful film I have ever seen in my life. If you ever wanted to know what being on LSD would be like (I'm NOT speaking from experience), then this would be the film to go and see.

Growing up as a kid, Speed Racer's Mach 5 was easily one of the coolest cars on television. Now obviously cars like this never existed in real life, I mean who'd honestly have a set of jump jacks or a couple of saws fitted to the front of their car? So when I heard that the Wachowski Bros. of The Matrix and V for Vendetta fame were going to make a "live action" film, I immediately wanted to go and see it irrespective of how crap the reviews were going to be.

And that is the point of the film, it's very very cartoony. People use cars as weapons, never mind the anti-corporate message throughout the film when itself cost $29 million US to make, or the fact that the tracks they race on have loops, no runoff or barriers either.

I so wish I'd bought the double volume comic whilst I was in America now.

Horse 890 - Janking the ARIA charts for fun and profit.

2008-06-24T14:02:00.002+10:00

I was speaking to Neve at Spit Music this afternoon and was asking some questions in my own inimitable style.
"You know that America song "A Horse With No Name", if it ran away, how would you get it back?"
"Call it"
"With what? It doesn't have a name"
"Oh yeah."

This was soon followed by:
"If I wanted to manipulate the ARIA charts, how many record sales would I need?"
"22"
"22?"
"Yeah, 22. This band called Sparkadia... well one of the band members' mums, walked in and bought 22 copies of the CD. It went to No.23 based on our CD sales"
"How?"
"Well there's only 27 record stores left in Australia that actually report to ARIA anymore. There just aren't that many record stores since everyone started downloading stuff."

That there says it all. If someone like Ellie Magill wanted to get her EP "Fists and Fingers" onto the ARIA charts, then you could either do it by microsales via iTunes or by actual CD sales through an ARIA reporting shop. Since it can't take more than 3 dozen sales to manipulate the charts, my suggestion is obvious and all we'd need would be the impetus to get us there.

Scary aint it?

Horse 889 - Australia are World Champions!

2008-06-23T08:58:00.002+10:00

http://www.theage.com.au/news/health/australia-now-worlds-fattest-nation/2008/06/19/1213770886872.html From The Age - Blogger has decided that it hates links.

Australia has become the fattest nation in the world, with more than 9 million adults now rated as obese or overweight, according to an alarming new report.
The most definitive picture of the national obesity crisis to date has found that Australians now outweigh Americans and face a future "fat bomb" that could cause 123,000 premature deaths over the next two decades.

If the crisis is not averted, obesity experts have warned, health costs could top $6 billion and an extra 700,000 people will be admitted to hospital for heart attacks, strokes and blood clots caused by excess weight.
The latest figures show 4 million Australians — or 26% of the adult population — are now obese compared to an estimated 25% of Americans. A further 5 million Australians are considered overweight.

http://www.geocities.com/rollo75/horse1.htm

All the way back in Horse 14, 5 years and 12 days ago, figures showed that 60% of the population was overweight. Today, we've reached a new level by bettering America and becoming World Champions at being lard buckets. 1 in 4 adults is now obese. What went wrong Australia? I can't believe this! This is disgraceful. For a nation that's supposed to be renowned for being sport-loving, how did we become a nation of purile purulent porkers?

Obesity is the only disease I have ever heard of that can be described as "morbid". You don't for instance hear of "morbid bronchitis" do you? No! It's like they some how needed another category for super-duper-fat people - I don't see what was wrong with the old schoolyard tag of "Fatty-boom-bah". C'mon Australia we need to try harder!

It stands to reason that physicians can not prevent chronic disease or the complications of chronic disease. It is the responsibility of the patient to prevent chronic diseases and its complications. The patient has to change their lifestyle. Poor lifestyle choices lead to chronic disease and it’s complications! Society does not "cause" a smoker to get lung cancer - Nope, it is the individual's fault over many years by making deliberate choices. Yes, you heard me - Choices. Although this is going to sound insensitive, here goes: being obese is a choice made over several years; it doesn't happen overnight but it does happen. It is your choice to shove inordinate amounts of food down your gullets Australia. It's as much a choice as smoking, drinking, not wearing a seatbelt or any other range of really stupid stuff people do that can lead to them dying.

This rant could end here and now but guess what? I have a solution Australia, and it comes in two parts:

1. The MMORPG: Outside!
This RPG requires zero monthly fees, has a massive fully rendered and textured world to explore and has amazing terrains and real-time processing of weather. The AI of the NPCs ranges from one dimensional to utterly staggeringly intelligent and there are about 95,500 different character archtypes. It's fully PvP and comes in Super XHD at 6.3 Megapixel and Dolby 12.4.

But it requires you to GO OUTSIDE YOU FATTY-BOOM-BAHS!

2. The other part involves just one simple pill - just one.
But Rollo, you're suggesting that obesity can be cured with a pill? Indeed I am. It weighs 454g or 1lb. in the old measures and is 27 inches in circumference. This pill is not taken internally but kicked repeatedly or if your name happens to be Bill Ellis, picked up and carried. I'm talking about footballs!
Whilst going outside might be half the story, actually doing something out there is the other part of it. Kick a footy, run, ride a bike, do whatever it takes, padlock the fridge. We need to see arms throwing balls, fat legs runinng and plentiful chins frivolating.

I blame political correctness. Some time ago we decided that making fun of fat people might hurt their feelings so we told our kiddies not to and look what happened! Right before our very eyes we turned into the World Champions of being Chunky-Chunky-Gabuptas! That's not something we want to win, is it?

Horse 888 - FG, the end?

2008-06-20T12:00:00.001+10:00

These are the official pictures of the brand new "Nitro Blue" FG Ford Falcon V8 Supercar. Jointly developed between Ford Performance Racing, Stone Bros. and Triple 8 Engineering, the car from outset was designed to be cheaper to build but as competitive as the current BF Falcon.

I suspect that V8 Supercars has a distinct problem. Ford's FG V8 Supercar which was unveilled last week, may have the misfortune of being the last of its kind. The problem revolves around the fact that come 2011, there might not be a locally produced replacement for the car. Ford North America pulled the pin on Fairlane and LTD by denying Ford Australia an export market for the long-wheelbase variant, and now with the cancellation of the aging inline-6 that's pulled the car for 42 years, coupled with rising petrol prices, the market might dry up for the next model code-named "Hunstman" (BF was code-named "Orion") like it did for the ill-fated Mitsubishi 380.

Project Blueprint went part of the way by defining standard gearboxes and suspension componentry and FG relies less on welded panels for strength than the BF, which allows for swifter removal and replacement of damaged panels, so the whole car acts more like a zip-on and zip-off affair.
Ford teams had agreed that the FG had to be less expensive to build as a new shell as well as being cheaper and quicker to repair after an accident and to further reduce costs, the FG was designed so that the maximum amount of BF mechanical components could carry over into the new chassis.

All of this sounds great in theory until Ford abandon production of the car. What happens then? Does V8 Supercars move to something like NASCAR's "Car of Tommorrow" where the cars are shaped identically and even the grill and headlights on the front are stickers? Or does it shift to something smaller, perhaps taking up the WTCC's Super 2000 regulations? In terms of asthetic looks, the 2008 Vauxhall Vectra still looks like a very angry motor car.

Whereever Australian motor racing goes, I don't think it will be a problem so long as the manufacturers agree to supporting it. The only reason why Group A finally bit the dust in 1992 was that Ford and Holden had a collective dummy spit when Nissan built a better car and so they had to throw the baby out with the bath water. If they decide something new, how tetchy would they be about letting someone else play with them? NASCAR seems to have survived with the addition of Toyota.

Horse 887 - 30 Years Later

2008-06-19T12:20:00.003+10:00

It was 30 years ago today that the small orange cat Garfield, broke cover and into our daily newspapers. That's 30 years of slightly inane marketing genius aimed at exploiting the wallets of people everywhere.

It is true that Jim Davis did want to create a marketable character, and the proof of this was that within 5 years, the product saw sydication in world-wide newspapers and already a sizeable stack of merchandise.

The comic strip itself is no longer drawn by Davis, who at the age of 57 didn't want the quality of the work to "age" like Schultz' Peanuts did. In fact this shows in that the quality remains quite consistent. Also, like Peanuts the ages of the characters never change.

One of the funnest things I ever found was this:
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
Garfield Minus Garfield which is the strip minus the titular character. What we're lift with is described on the site as "an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life" through the eyes of Jon Arbuckle. "Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb."

Davis has created 10,950 comic strips, two movies, 133 television shows and specials, and sold 135 million books. Something that big can not be ignored very easily.

Horse 886 - The Micro Micro Car

2008-06-18T11:43:00.002+10:00

The sight of a 6'5" Jeremy Clarkson trying to fit into the miniscule Peel P50 on Top Gear on Monday night was certainly one of the funniest things I have ever seen. The car at just 53" long and less than a cricket stump wide is truly a marvel.

Whilst the car could only do 38mph or 61km/h, it's 49cc DKW moped engine could get as much as 100mpg. At £199 new, even adjusting for inflation it only comes out to about £1034 in 2008 prices.

Having seen Jeremy drive it through London, I would be very scared to drive it through traffic; especially considering the monarchs of the road the London Omnibus rearing down behind you.

Although Clarkson says that it would be subject to the Congestion Charge, a look at the Transport for London website indicates otherwise.

My Ka look positively monstrous next to the Peel P50 and in a world where petrol is fast becoming a luxury, I would love to see a modern re-interpretation of it. The world would be far safer with 90,000 of these critters rather than big-fat Land Cruisers.

The man in the 'coon-skin cap, in the big pen...

2008-06-17T15:35:00.002+10:00

... wants 11 Dollar Bills

You Only Got Ten!