News and current affairs
Welcome to the year two thousand. The very fact that you’re reading these words probably means that the dreaded Y2K bug didn’t eventuate. At least, not in a huge way. I’m sure the residents of Hobart and Adelaide aren’t too disappointed that their bus ticket machines stopped working for a while. (Oh, commiserations if you’re ... [More]
Well, here we finally are, the eve of the year 2000. Will the Y2K bug (design decision, actually) destroy civilisation as we know it? Somehow I doubt it. I think there’s going to be a lot of embarrassed survivalists on Monday, humming and haa-ing and wondering what on earth they’re going to do with all ... [More]
Couldn’t resist having a swipe when I saw this article in Saturday’s Age.
I got the slippers. Of course, since they don’t have any holes (well, okay, just one hole, where I put my foot in), they feel almost too warm. It’s been a few weeks since the new City Link toll road opened – without tolls until the government’s sure they’ve won the election, of course (ooh, ... [More]
Well well well, so another bunch of teenagers made pipe bombs and blew themselves up. And of course they got their instructions… all together now… Off the Internet! Even now I can see the tabloid editors foaming at the mouth for headlines. "Kids download bombs"… "Deadly Internet"… "Web bomb"! Oh goodness, what a surprise. The ... [More]
I’ve just got to have a rant. This whole Olympics marching band thing has got way out of hand. From the sounds of it, some SOCOG dweeb made the wrong decision to start with, and they’d already got loads of overseas marching bands to come over when someone said "errr, how about letting some Aussies play?" ... [More]
To help people all over the world live together in peace and harmony To get my neighbours evicted To tidy up my desk to the point where I can see it To see and take pictures of more of the world To defy the odds and get my driving license, preferably without crashing into anything. ... [More]
Today we were country bound. A tradition, that we have (okay, so we’ve only done it done twice now, so it’s not much of a tradition), is to take our visiting American relatives up to our friends’ farm near Ballarat. They’re also American, and enjoy having their fellow countrymen to visit. Perhaps they do weird ... [More]
From time to time there’s a story so big on the news that it dominates everything else in the western world. Something you’ll remember in decades to come, and tell your offspring exactly where you were when you heard the news. For me it’s been the death of John Lennon (on the telly when I ... [More]
I see the Russian space program has reached new depths. For a while it looked like their rocket was going to crash in Australia. Thanks very bloody much guys, well done! Apparently now the Cold War is over we’re no longer under threat of nuclear annihilation, now it’s rockets falling out of the sky instead. ... [More]
It’s good to see the Dalai Lama getting a good reception on his current visit to Australia. I wonder anyone will tell him the joke someone said on Good News Week last week, about "Dalai Lamas in Pyjamas"? It has possibilities… D2: "Are you thinking what I’m thinking, D1?" D1: "I think I am, D2!" ... [More]
The Queen Mother turned 96 today. I wonder… when she turns 100, will she get a telegram from the Queen?