Broadband …

I wish I had some.

The pause is due to Telstra, the blogging pause not the pause in global warming. There was an almighty storm at the end of February. The cable that connects me to the outside world blew about in the wind. Opinions vary but it may have done itself some injury against the power cable, also suspended in mid-air. Internet connection then became slow and subsequently ceased.

Telstra was rung. Very lovely, polite, cheerful and helpful lady with excellent English, although in the Philippines, promised a speedy recovery. Stayed home on the appointed day, phone at the ready until the day expired. No technician.

Telstra was rung. Very lovely, polite, cheerful and helpful lady with excellent English, although in the Philippines, made enquiries, which takes a while, and divulged the sad news that the technician had been. Sadly, he hadn’t thought to knock on the door, ring on the phone or write a note. The job was completed, albeit totally unsuccessfully, because it was a power company issue. “Ring the power company,”she said. ” And ask them to do what exactly?” I asked.

Not impressed with having to ring the power company to ask them to perform an unspecifiable task for unascertainable reasons we asked to speak to a technical person in Melbourne. Impossible. Your supervisor, then. Certainly. Finding a supervisor takes a while.

I am not certain what qualities lead to promotion, but clearly not good manners or fluency in English. Supervisor unable to explain what problem the technician had discovered, agreed to make further enquiry and ring back within 24 hours. He didn’t.

Rang Telstra. Very lovely, polite, cheerful and helpful lady with excellent English, although in the Philippines made enquiries which takes a while, and could shed no further light on the matter. She was kind enough to connect me to the cancellation department.

Very lovely, polite, cheerful and helpful man, a native speaker of English, in Melbourne, began the process of terminating my relationship with Telstra and then very delicately enquired if things had reached the point beyond which divorce was the only option. He would get to the bottom if things and expedite the repair and give me a discount on my fax line if I could just bear with him. It is a sad commentary that the Telstra business plan has the best and brightest working in the cancellation department. He sounded so earnest that I gave him the chance. Within half an hour a technical person was on the line. It would take five days to solve the problem. He would confirm arrangements in two days.

He didn’t confirm.

Five days later rang Telstra. The cancellation department. Two more days …

Will this reach a satisfactory conclusion?

Meanwhile, hot spotted through Gayle’s mobile phone I struggle onward.

 

Je suis gobsmacked …

Charlie Hebdo has been named 2015 International Islamophobe of the year, despite many of its staff having been killed by Jihadists in January. The annual ‘award’ was given by Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), a British group that claims to campaign against terrorism.

According to the Muslim website5Pillars the award was given to Charlie Hebdo because of its “continual stoking of Islamophobic sentiment by caricaturing Muslims as terrorists and ridiculing their beliefs.”

It continued: “Charlie Hebdo’s repeated mocking of Muslims is part of a culture of hate that is intended to marginalise, further alienate and further endanger a community that has effectively been ‘otherised’ in much the same way that Jews were in Nazi Germany.”

Staff at Charlie Hebdo were unable to accept the award as many of them had been murdered for mocking Mohammed.

More at the <SOURCE>

It’s true …

Good news, Google is introducing a truth ranking algorithm to its search engine. I know this because I read it in New Scientist.

THE internet is stuffed with garbage. Anti-vaccination websites make the front page of Google, and fact-free “news” stories spread like wildfire. Google has devised a fix – rank websites according to their truthfulness.

The prospect of being spared the drivel emanating from the anti-vaccination brigade, the anti GM brigade, the anti-fracking brigade, the doom sayers, homeopaths and the other side of politics is highly desirable. What would I give up for that?

But, who is going to decide what’s true? What if big players decide not to play fair?

In early 2006 the BBC had a seminar to decide what was true in the realm of climate change. Executives met with a room full of invited experts and decided that the truth was evident and henceforth their coverage of this issue should be one-sided, presumably for the public good. The BBC Trust reported that this was on the advice of the best scientific experts. Subsequently the BBC spent tens of thousands of pounds in an effort to avoid revealing who these experts were. Ultimately it transpired that they were representatives of pressure groups such as Greenpeace and Stop Climate Chaos.

Our ABC also ignores its charter and campaigns for social improvement rather than report the truth. If you rely on the ABC for your news you are probably dismayed at how slowly the canonisations of St Julia Gillard and St Gillian Triggs are progressing.

As always we should be careful what we wish for, without fact free news the main stream media would go broke, New Scientist included.

 

Clean and Green …

Ah, New Zealand …

Authorities warned parents to examine packaging for signs of tampering and supermarkets removed formula cans from shelves to storerooms so shoppers could not access them directly.

Possums being far more cuddly than babies …

New Zealand police said that anonymous letters were received by Federated Farmers and Fonterra in November 2014, accompanied by small packages of milk powder, which subsequently tested positive for the presence of a concentrated form of 1080.

The letters threatened to contaminate infant and other formula with 1080 (sodium monoflouroacetate) unless New Zealand stopped using it for pest control by the end of March 2015.

It has had the desired effect …

New Zealand is the world’s leading dairy exporter.

The New Zealand dollar dropped to a six-week low and the share market dipped on the news of the blackmail threat.

President of New Zealand’s peak farming body, Federated Farmers of New Zealand (FFNZ), Dr William Rolleston, said

he believed his organisation was targeted by the anonymous letter writer due to their support for the use of 1080 to control possum populations.

“Unlike you guys in Australia who protect your possums, they are not a welcome visitor here, I’m afraid. We do endorse the use of 1080. It’s a highly effective and safe product when used properly and it’s biodegradable, so it breaks down in the environment very quickly, it doesn’t have an impact on our native species, so it’s a very good toxin to use for dealing with what is a major issue for New Zealand.”

Source your green ABC.

Today’s discussion point, “Are babies a bigger pest than possums?”

It’s Etiquette …

Filed by our Warracknabeal correspondent …

Australian bush etiquette is world famous but in case you may have forgotten the finer details …

In General:

  • Never take an open stubby to a job interview…
  • Always identify people in your paddocks before shooting at them.
  • It’s tacky to take an Esky to church.
  • If you have to vacuum the bed, it’s time to change the sheets.
  • Even if you’re certain you’re included in the will, it’s rude to take your ute and trailer to the funeral.

Eating Out:

  • When decanting wine from the box, tilt the paper cup and pour slowly so as not to bruise the wine.
  • If drinking directly from the bottle, hold it with only one hand.

Entertaining at Home:

  • A centrepiece for the table should never be anything prepared by a taxidermist.
  • Don’t allow the dog to eat at the table, no matter how good his manners.

Personal Hygiene:

  • While ears need to be cleaned regularly, this should be done in private, using one’s OWN ute keys.
  • Even if you live alone, deodorant isn’t a waste of money.
  • Extensive use of deodorant can only delay bathing by a few days.
  • Dirt and grease under the fingernails is a no-no,it alters the taste of finger foods and if you are a woman it can draw attention away from your jewellery.

Theatre/Cinema Etiquette:

  • Crying babies should be taken to the lobby and picked up after the movie ends.
  • Refrain from yelling abuse at characters on the screen. Tests have proven they can’t hear you.

Weddings:

  • Livestock is a poor choice for a wedding gift.
  • For the groom, at least, rent a tux.  A tracksuit with a cummerbund and a clean football jumper can create a tacky appearance.
  • Though uncomfortable, say “yes” to socks and shoes for the occasion.

Driving Etiquette:

  • Dim your headlights for approaching vehicles, even if your gun’s loaded and the roo’s in your rifle sight.
  • When entering a roundabout, the vehicle with the largest roo bar doesn’t always have the right of way.
  • Never tow another car using panty hose and duct tape.
  • When sending your wife down the road to fill up a petrol can, it’s impolite to ask her to bring back beer too.

Hotter and hotter …

It’s worse than we thought. Gee, it’s getting hot.

All the models show it and according to the consensus we all know it.

The thermometer, however, has been uncooperative. To counter this Australian thermometer readings have been homogenised, that is adjusted.

The Bureau of Meteorology have published the improved temperatures as the ACORN data set. The result – an increase in temperature of 0.9 °C over a century. QED.

Two issues cloud the matter somewhat. One is the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Increase the bitumen and the buildings around weather stations and you expect a warming bias in the record. The second issue is the adjustment process. One would expect that, for urban weather stations, either the modern records would be corrected downwards or older records to be corrected upwards, in order to compensate for the UHI. The mechanism the BoM uses for temperature adjustment has not been published. But trust us, we are from the government and are here to help. As was said of another government “the future is certain, only the past is subject to change”.

The past has left a record. In 1933 what was then called CSIR published 74 years of weather records. Twenty years later The Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics published an Official Year Book of Australia which included the mean temperature readings from 1911 to 1940 at 44 locations.

One Chris Gillham has been working very hard to compare the historical records with the ACORN set. And guess what … the older records have been adjusted downwards. Almost half of the vaunted warming has been due entirely to changes in the record. My guess is that the rest is due to the UHI.

My source is Jo Nova where you can find far more detail.

Nothing to do with Putin …

Death catches up with all of us eventually.

One way to speed things along seems to be to criticise Vladimir Putin.

Anna Politkovskaya

Alexander Litvinenko

Sergei Magnitsky

Stanislav Markelov

Natalya Estimirova

Alexei Dovetchenko

Boris Nemtsov

Good to know that Vlad is taking a personal interest in the investigation. I’m sure the hitmen are very relieved …