On a brighter note ...

Here's a cool pic of a house in Ireland:



I wonder how many millions of pounds it costs. Well, you never know I guess ... oh for a place like that ...

Whither Australia

An interesting article in the Herald about Australia, its psyche and its position in the world. Definitely worth a read!



A country that has stopped thinking

Prosperity has brought security but also a lack of vision and an absence of courage, write Steve Burrell and staff reporters.

Relaxed and comfortable. Or just timid and slow on the uptake? Anaesthetised by the Lucky Country prosperity of a once-in-50-year global resources boom, with leaders who have become frightened to lead, obsessed with cost but often blind to opportunity, Australia is being left behind on things that matter for the future.

Whether it's improving broadband speed and access or grasping the huge business opportunities thrown up by the climate-change challenge, we go around in circles - or backwards - as the best of the world moves ahead. The same can be said for capitalising on our innovation, scientific research and development, building world-class infrastructure and improving education, medical services, transport and urban design.

We have good ideas, world-class ideas, but too often our best and brightest have to go somewhere else to pursue them. The problem goes deep, with many of its roots in the way we are governed and, perhaps, in the nature of our national character. ... more

Children see, children do

I have been seeing this advertisement on TV from Australia's National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) recently and I think it's really good. Just thought you might like it too:



NAPCAN says: "NAPCAN's powerful multi-media community service campaign challenges adults to make a positive influence on the lives of children and young people."

Randy Thai sniffer dogs get the sack

Two Thai street mutts who became ace sniffer dogs at an airport near the notorious Golden Triangle opium-producing region have been fired for urinating on luggage and sexually harassing female passengers.

The pair, Mok and Lai, had been plucked from obscurity under a program initiated by King Bhumibol Adulyadej to turn strays into police dogs, the Bangkok Post said today.

Although they won plaudits from police for their work in sniffing out drugs at northern Thailand's Chiang Rai airport, near the border with Laos and Burma, so many passengers complained about their behaviour they had to be fired.

"He liked to pee on luggage while searching for drugs inside," Mok's former handler, Police Lieutenant Colonel Jakapop Kamhon, said. "He also liked to hold on to women's legs."

"Both were just as good as foreign dogs trained for use in drug missions," he added. "But they were stray dogs, so their manners were worse than those of foreign breeds."

Mok and Lai now work on a farm, herding chickens and pigs, the paper said.

Reuters

Under the moonlight

I have been so entranced by this song featured in the Novetel advert below. There is something romantic and ethereal about the singer's voice that just sends shivers down my spine.



Anyway, I did a little bit a of detective work on Google and found out that the singer is Emilie Simon, a 28-year-old French singer/songwriter. Her music, I suppose, is quite typical of the European electronic vocals-type genre. Love her voice, and of course, it does sound even sexier in French!

A forgotten populace

The Herald published a slideshow of the living conditions faced by indigenous Australians just 50 minutes from Cairns. Do have a look at the slideshow and the article that it accompanied. It's shocking to see (but perhaps not surprising?) such third-world poverty in this country.

Links
Article: Hopes, dreams and lofty government promises
Slideshow: Aboriginal Australia

Bye bye Blair

In celebration of Tony Blair's 10 years as Prime Minister of Britain, here's a excerpt from a Guardian commentator about him, and two videos.

Getting a laugh out of this prime minister has been like trying to open an oyster with a plastic fork

Simon Hoggart
Thursday May 10, 2007
The Guardian

... When a new political figure comes on the scene, sketchwriters and cartoonists have the same job. We need to find the key elements, of physical appearance and speech, then exaggerate them to that they become familiar to readers and can be used as a helpful shorthand for drawings and articles. Steve Bell spotted the Blair eyeball, the one mad staring optic, which he seemed to have inherited from Thatcher. The bonkers eye complements the sane one, which roves around the room in a friendly way; meanwhile the angry one is taking names. Alarmingly, the eyes change places; sometimes it's the right which comes at you like a dentist's drill, sometimes the left.

I noticed first the verb-free sentences, which he still uses today: "Our people, prosperous and secure. Our children, meeting the challenge ..." These are sentences without real content, expressing vague aspirations rather than real commitments. He might use up to 200 in one speech, making it sound like oratorical Muzak, conveying little but a sense of wellbeing. ... Click HERE for full article

Tony Blair's sketch with Catherine Tate for Comic Relief 2007:



A spoof of a Bush-Blair press conference by Dead Ringers: