Australian business 24 Jun 2010 So Kevin Rudd has been ousted as PM and Julia Gillard replaces him to become Australia’s first female prime minister. What this means only time will tell, and usually I don’t like factional politics; they are fundamentally undemocratic. But this time it may have headed off a crisis. It remains for us to find out if the execrable and authoritarian internet censorship will be dropped with Stephen Conroy, whose position as minister for communications depended on his long time friendship with Rudd. In more important matters, some Australians who are famed for kicking inflated bladders made from leather beat some Serbians who are famed for kicking bladders made from leather, in a game that consists of kicking bladders made from leather, in different directions. This, apparently, vindicates national identity. Australian stuff Censorship
Australian stuff I’m so proud of Australia 15 Jun 2010 We’re best at car thefts. Beats those wussy Kiwis, who are only best at half shell mussels. [But, those who eat such things report, they are good.] The UK: CCTV. Germany, solar panels. France: Sugar beet[!] Guess what the US is best at… [Hat tip John Lynch, who is from… Read More
Australian stuff Bastardry: On protest and on fascism 17 Mar 201417 Mar 2014 I attended the March in March protest against the current government of Australia yesterday. My legs still hurt. I’m sure that demonstrations were not so arduous thirty years ago. I noticed that this was a privative demonstration. It was not about something so much as against something, and the something it was… Read More
Censorship More developments on internet filtering: the religious connection 28 Oct 20084 Oct 2017 As I feared, the internet filtering issue has now been taken up by special interests. The conservative Christian political party Family First, run largely by the Hillsong evangelical denomination, has one senator, but the balance of power is so tight they wield disproportionate power, and as PM Kevin Rudd and… Read More
Said in AFL context: ‘My football team is better than yours because you’re a dickhead’. Or to put it another way: de football teams non disputandum.
We were thinking the same way … because I wrote my own Gillard post before I saw this, but after you wrote it. For me, the marathon, record-breaking Wimbledon match is more compelling than a soccer match that failed to get Australia through to the real action in the World Cup. I don’t know if you’re interested in tennis, but the stats are mind-boggling.
This sounds interesting. Tell me more about inflated bladder kicking. Where did this event take place? Was it in Australia or Serbia?
Actually John these days the bladders are made of some super high tech substance with an unpronounceable chemical name. Next time you visit I’ll take you to the place where they’re created, it’s just down the road from here. Naturally, they’re manufactured in China.
Oh come on! It’s not just about the bladder. There’s also the requirement to perform the dying swan pas de deux from Swan Lake in order the provide the opposition with visual stimulation via brightly coloured bits of card – with the ultimate aim of providing the opposition playes with a some well earned time off. The bladder is irrelevent. And ignore Moran. If it doesn’t include small pieces of metal being propelled at lethal speeds by large lumps of wood, he’s not interested.
Okay, I get this reference. But there is a version called ‘Jam Pail Curling’ that actually uses concrete filled jam pails.
“small pieces of metal being propelled at lethal speeds by large lumps of wood”?? What the hell are you referring to?
What the hell are you referring to? I’m sorry, I admit my description was inadequate. Here’s a fuller version: “small pieces of metal being propelled at lethal speeds by large lumps of wood carrying large lumps of wood” Usually umdertaken on the most common crystaline phase of water.
That’s what I figured but why plural and why metal? They are, and I think always have been, vulcanized rubber. (and only one used at a time)
An underwater hockey puck (originally but now rarely referred to as a “squid” in the United Kingdom), while similar in appearance to an ice hockey puck, differs in that it has a lead core weighing approximately 3 pounds (1.4 kg) within a teflon, plastic or rubber coating.
My suggestion of an underwater hockey/ice hockey hybrid have yet to be taken up then. Ice hockeyers are wusses. Afraid of a little piece of metal . . .