Thursday, March 29, 2012

Ridiuclous use of Similies and Minister moves to stamp out Customs corruption

28 March 2012 saw this interview on ABC Breakfast - Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare was there because of a major arrest of  drug runners in co-operation between AFP and SE Asia Police.
He then went on to talk about the Asylum boats and wanted to push "send them back to Malaysia if only Tony Abbott would allow it"
He compared current effort in trying to stop the boats as like trying to stop water out of a garden hose by putting your finger over the hole. He said "we should do is send the boats to Malaysia to turn the tap off". This is utterly confused logic. It is like pouring the hose into a bucket and taking the bucket back to the water tank so it all pours through again.
The reporter was obviously enjoying the discussion as he then said "what is being done to turn this tap off?
and hence the story
Minister moves to stamp out Customs corruption - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I am very sad to hear  of this corruption as in UK I was an Officer of C&E

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Historian uncovers Australia's censored books and my time in HM Customs

I was only discussing when I was a UK Officer of Customs and Excise yesterday and censorship and then today
Historian uncovers Australia's censored books - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Note article mentions Children's comics. Well I remember seizing comics under the 1953 Children's Harmful publications Act. These were Horror Comics. Even nowadays Horror Films are X rated some are banned and these comics of ghastly content were in a format that appeared to a kid's comic. No question they should be banned..... What I had was a shipment of samples and when I seized them the importer said he was only bringing them in to see if he would publish. I said that was the point and why I was seizing them...

I did disagree with a fellow officer who had to inspect a suitcase coming in as freight and wanted to seize a man's photo album as he had some very personal photos of himself. I didn't think this was covered by the intent of any law...

Then some other officers at London Airport wanted to seize some Harold Robbins book "Carpet Baggers?". We were at the newspaper stand at lunch time and there was same book on sale....

PS I wonder if the ban on books from certain Paris publishing houses is still in force

Friday, March 23, 2012

Farewell?: Dame Edna

Dame Edna Everage, announced her impending retirement from live - or what she calls ''flesh and blood'' - theatre.
Not your average Edna

Amazingly Edna has been "''To be the most loved woman - I won't say in the world" since 1955....
Ah the trick was not to be arrive late at his/her show as you'd be up the front and have words and gladdies thrown at you....
Fortunately Sir Les seems to have retired BUT I do miss Sandy Stone....

The LAST show may appear somewhere near you anytime in this decade

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Blogger: The 'pencil' icon for editing is missing

Google high-handed ness again.
Last year I was using Google Reader but then they changed the interface and it became unusable so I switched to Feed Demon
Now they have added a country specific address to blogger so that access my blog and you get redirected to http://ronlankshearreviews.blogspot.com.au/ - they have added .au - if a Blogger was in UK then it .uk etc
I suppose they will keep the Re-direct in place so I hope all the places on which I put my blog address will not fail to find it.

In meantime there at [IMPORT] The 'pencil' icon for editing is missing and so is gadget quick editing tools - Google Groups folk are discussing what to do and a Google person did acknowledge but as yet they have fixed the edit tool problem...


Anyhow I've just bookmarked the Edit page so its the long way round when I want to fix a page....

Next blog probably Wordpress

Today on the Message forum a guy in Canada posted his URL and I clicked it came up with AU at the end - he is in CA not AU
 It seems it is deliberate
Why does my blog redirect to a country-specific URL? (ccTLD) - Blogger Help
which now means when you see AU at end of URL it might not mean site is by someone in Australia just that google thinks it OK for Australia....

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Gillard agrees Carbon Tax will cause a Tax direct on families

The day started off with

Carbon tax may be unconstitutional: Abbott : World News Australia on SBS

Then I watched question time
Member for Ryan: Can PM advise why school children on buses will pay carbon tax and children in their parents cars will not

PM: No No The tax is not direct - we have computed that into the income tax cuts so parents will be reimbursed

Alas PM you made the point yourself - the parents with cars will get the tax cut so will the parents whose kids travel on the buses but they will have to use the cut to pay the fare increase ie the Carbon Tax whereas the car drivers will be able to use the cuts to buy whatever they want...... a holiday

And of course even that is based on the computation work that increases will be offset by the income tax cuts.. How long before the carbon price means everyone pays....

of course to me the only point of a carbon tax is to force people out of the bad energy BUT INTO WHAT?

Do something about global warming and stop playing around with this silly tax

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Domesticated foxes in Siberia:

A while ago saw a docoon why dog behaviour and it included a coverage of this work with Silver Foxes. One fox bred appropriately was as friendly as any dog. Another bred the old way was still a Wild animal - tried to get the zoologist through the cage bars....



Domesticated foxes in Siberia: An experiment in peril. - Slate Magazine

Friday, March 09, 2012

African Despots - Campaign To Make African Despot Famous..or Infamous

My prayer for Africa is that Goodness and Mercy will triumph
 
March 2012 was first time  I had heard of Kony
Kony 2012 | Campaign To Make African Despot Famous... | Stuff.co.nz
To me Joseph Kony should be infamous

Then my cousin invited me to a Facebook group Kony 2012 New Zealand
and now a resource page  Kony 2012 - Urban Opine » Urban Opine

And same day this was on SMH
Child in Kony 2012 defends film


12 March 2012 Some of the conflicting opinions Good warlords, bad warlords and the #kony2012 campaign - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 Next Day Ugandans say Kony film is 'misleading', 'too late' | News.com.au 
 They says that was Uganda 6 years ago and it is different now and people should help them with their businesses. The Point as I understand it is that Kony is still out there somewhere and people need to see justice happen.and followed by
Kony 2012 director answers critics of video - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


12 March 2012 Some of the conflicting opinions Good warlords, bad warlords and the #kony2012 campaign - The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Comments about nobody had heard of Kony last week and now all this fuss. Well that is the point
Like 12 March 2012 some good justice announced Lubanga guilty of using child soldiers
Who knew of Lubanga - these bad guys are creeping under the radar - they need to be denounced and arrested and tried


 George Clooney ‘Surprised’ By Success of Kony 2012 Video - ABC News
and next day George Clooney arrested at Sudan protest -   Note also the people arrested with him - the World has to do something about these African Warlords

 'Tasteless': backlash over Kony campaigner's meltdown - looks after he had trauma with all the backlash


 Zimbabweans face jail for Mubarak overthrow talk - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Just check that talking about Egypt means overthrowing their own beloved leader.....