Author: bravo22c

Isn’t it annoying when those two clash? This thought was brought about by a discussion in my final Romanian lesson – my contract here ends at the end of this month. I was discussing an article in a local tabloid with my teacher. The article itself was about social security in Romania and who should be entitled to it. The article listed the Government criteria which define who should be classed as ‘poor,’ and who should not. Amongst other things, if you own three cows, or pigs, 80 ducks, female turkeys, hens, geese or eating pigeons, or a video recorder, (a what?) a laptop, (but not a desktop,) a video entry-phone a hand-loom, or a coffee grinder, you should not be entitled to social security. The sentence that prompted the discussion read, ‘There are indeed some people who don’t even have a cat outside their door, then there are others who live in villages with windowless houses with little towers.’ What the heck does that mean?

And I have a cold. So I’m sitting at my notebook catching up with some friends by email. Quantum, (my owner,) sneaks under my feet an I don’t notice. I finish an email, reach forward to take a drink of tea, shift my foot and tread on my owner’s tail. Owner squeals and bats my ankle with a pawful of claws. I yelp and jump and hot tea splashes into my, erm, lap. I jump again, a little more energetically, my owner is still round my feet, I lose my balance, fall backwards, pour the rest of the tea over my chest, yell some more and fall to the floor. My owner has it away on her toes, I rush to the shower and spray chest and, erm, lap with cold water. After cooling down I hang my wet clothes to dry, take a comforting shower, step out of the shower stall – stand on my owner, again, slip on the tiles and finish up on my, erm, fundament on the bathroom floor.

And I still have a cold.

A letter from an Australian poster on James Delingpole’s blog.

>I am sitting here in my home in South East Queensland, watching the news come in about the flooding everywhere. Entire suburbs around Brisbane and several smaller towns are either isolated by flood-waters or have been evacuated. Highways are cut everywhere.
People have been dying. So far about 20 people have died in the past week – nine just this morning when a deluge went through the Lockyer Valley. Most of them children. Another 70 are missing. One could put it all down to “just” weather.
Except EXACTLY the same floods occurred in EXACTLY the same places back in 1974, with much the same tragic loss of life and destruction of property. Continue reading “Could the floods have been prevented?”

Since you serve us up so many fine thoughts for the day, I thought you might like this one:

“The problem with Internet quotations is that many are not genuine.” – Abraham Lincoln

This resident of Rockhampton knows how to deal with the floods.

Original.

I just dropped a piece of toast and it landed butter side UP!

This gave me a good belly-laugh.

Lawyers cry foul over leak of Julian Assange sex-case papers

In a move that surprised many of Mr Assange’s closest supporters on Saturday, The Guardian newspaper published previously unseen police documents that accused Mr Assange in graphic detail of sexually assaulting two Swedish women. One witness is said to have stated: “Not only had it been the world’s worst screw, it had also been violent.”

Bjorn Hurtig, Mr Assange’s Swedish lawyer, said he would lodge a formal complaint to the authorities and ask them to investigate how such sensitive police material leaked into the public domain. “It is with great concern that I hear about this because it puts Julian and his defence in a bad position,” he told a colleague.

“I do not like the idea that Julian may be forced into a trial in the media. And I feel especially concerned that he will be presented with the evidence in his own language for the first time when reading the newspaper. I do not know who has given these documents to the media, but the purpose can only be one thing – trying to make Julian look bad.”

I await the flood of comments approving the publication of these documents in the Grauniad.  For the record, I both approve and disapprove.  I approve the Guardian’s even-handedness in putting these papers into the public domain while disapproving the action which may unduly influence a judicial decision.

Article in The Australian.

Assange is not a whistleblower and I wish people would stop dignifying what he has done with that sobriquet. A whistleblower is someone who works for, or with an organisation, discovers some wrongdoing, or apparent wrongdoing, and makes it known in a way appropriate to the alleged wrongdoing, and the consequences of its exposure. Most developed countries now have specific laws to protect such people and all reputable companies and organisations have Legal/HR/Security policies which both encourage and protect whistleblowers in the interests of good corporate governance – and the avoidance of severe legal penalties. So?

I didn’t realise you were an Economic Historian. You might find this interesting, if you haven’t seen it already:

200 Years of Progress. (Illustrated in four minutes.)

Try saying, ‘And it will be Amunugama Rajapakse Rajakaruna Abeykoon Panditha Wasalamudiyanse Ralahamilage Rajitha Krishantha Bandara Amunugama from the gasworks end.

It’s real.