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 Australian scientists resign from Murray-Darling Water commission due to a lack of heed 21 May 2011 I don’t usually post these announcements, but GetUp are reliable and on target. Today it was revealed that key scientists have walked away from the government’s Murray Darling Basin Authority process in protest. Right now the Murray Darling Basin Authority is in the final stages of recommending how to deal… Read More
Censorship Online predators are not nearly so bad as the media says 7 Aug 2009 I’ve been online now for nearly thirty years, from back in the days of BBSs and 300 baud acoustic couplers. In all that time, the internet for me has been annoying, occasionally angry, and with the occasional death threat from a Christian or insane person, but I have not seen,… Read More
Academe Rant: Old people 13 Mar 201413 Mar 2014 The Australian government is looking at extending the pension age to 70, so that older Australians, especially those in the Baby Boom demographic, will be free of the public purse for another 5 years over the present age of 65. Except that it is not the case that older Australians… 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 . . .