Not very Christian behaviour

According to a report in today's The Daily Telegraph, after World Youth Day last year, 550 of the pilgrims did not go home. Since then, Federal authorities have caught and expelled just over half of them, but 280 are still out there somewhere. Of course, they shouldn't be hard to find - The World Youth Day pilgrims were noted for spontaneously forming a circle and bursting out singing. And some had legitimate cause for rejoicing, as well as their love of The Almighty, as some (86) were granted protection visas as they could not return home safely. Another 90 are awaiting advice as to whether their visas will be extended.
The most amazing thing about this item was the last sentence: The Department of Immigration and Citizenship deals with 26 million people each year. That's about the current population of Australia.

Fresh idea

But it's not necessarily a new idea because the man at the newsagency said he had been trying to explain what a great and easy concept it was to someone over a year ago. A company is marketing Fresh Ink -printer ink cartridges which are categorized by pictures. So instead of buying a Canon BCI cartridge - you buy a Strawberry. A sticker comes with each cartridge so you can put it in a safe place - and, just in case you tire of the novelty (or they go out of business - please no!) it also gives the real model of the cartridge so you can purchase one elsewhere. Oh, and did I mention that even though they aren't brand name, their use won't void your printer's warranty - or so the man at the newsagency said.

Learning styles

We all have different learning styles, but what I'm surprised about is that I seem to have different learning styles for different tasks. I'm currently trying to learn a sequence of 37 numbers, and their relationship to each other i.e. how many numbers between one number and another in the sequence, and I am finding it hard going. I have tried a number of ways, but each So for has been found wanting... although, truth be told, maybe I've just forgotten how to rote learn. how sad would that be. Or maybe I need to think about it differently: l'm off to search on the web for a mnemonic. (Hmm -mnemonic, I think 1 read somewhere that there is no mnemonic for mnemonic - and what a strange word it is if you write it several times quickly).

Not getting into hot water

If you're in Australia and you're currently using a hot water bottle for those chilly nights, you might want to check the brand. Of 30 brands currently available here, it seems the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found 18 failed safety standards. And it's not just their opinion: in NSW alone, 111 people were treated for severe burns from scalds from hot water bottles from January 2006 to August 2009. It's unclear why it has taken so long for this menace to become public or how many of the injuries have resulted from people not knowing how to safely use a hot water bottle. If you're unsure - or just want to check your current hot water bottle does meet the safety standards - visit the ACCC website at http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/759045/fromItemId/3737.

Dump button

Hmmm - what's the point of installing a "kill" switch to stop inappropriate content going to air if it's not used. I'm referring to the Kyle and Jackie O show broadcast from a Sydney radio station which had been criticised a short while ago for an on-air lie detector test on a young girl. Well, Kyle has been at it again - but this time, even though the "kill" switch was there - it wasn't used. The question is ... why? Were staff too slow to catch it - or did they too think the remark was acceptable? And does having a "kill" switch mean Kyle can now be even more outrageous (if he wasn't currently forced off-air for 10 days) because it is someone else's responsibility to monitor what comes out of his mouth? Whatever the reasoning, I'm probably not the only one who thinks that it's time this stuff was not taking up the front page of the newspaper (if I was more cynical I'd be checking to see if The Daily Telegraph has financial tie-ins with 2DayFM).

Hard to fathom

I read a report in the paper this morning about a couple who are about to go on trial in France for allegedly murdering their two children in 2005. The children, both aged 8, were allegedly fed poisioned cannelloni because their parents thought they would be "better able to pull themselves out of debt without them". This is a far cry from the story of the woman at the bus stop this morning who was telling me she was prepared to fight her partner (even though she loves him very much) for the opportunity to send their daughter to boarding school to give her a chance at a better education.

QI

A mate has introduced me to a series which has been kicking around in the UK for a while now - QI. It is magnificient - a comedy panel show based on obscure facts. Points are awarded for right answers - and for wrong answers that are interesting - hence the name QI or Quite Interesting. In the last three shows I have watched there have been references to items that have captured my curiousity in the past: the final use of the guillotine for public execution in France (1977), the suicide of Carruthers - the man who invented Nylon, and the 16 mile-high jump out of a balloon by Joe Kittinger. If you see it in your travels, and like good banter, this could be the show for you too.

Facebook to the rescue

The Daily Telegraph today reports on two young girls, 10 and 12, who, when trapped in a drain over the weekend while doing "urban caving", called for help on their mobile phone by updating their Facebook status. Now, I know I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to some things, but wouldn't it have been better to use the phone to call the emergency services and then, as they waited, update Facebook? Seems the younger generation might approach communication in an entirely different way to the rest of us.

Dilemma

After returning The Daily Telegraph to its spot at the coffee shop, after I'd finished reading it, and making my way upstairs, I saw a scratch lottery ticket under the table where I had my "stuff" set up. Of course, I bent to retrieve it, and at that moment, it occurred to me that it might (yes, I know unlikely) be a winning ticket. How then would I go about finding its owner and returning it - or, if it was the jackpot winner (yes, yes, rich fantasy life) would I be tempted by the $50,000 prize NOT to return it? Rather than face the dilemma, I thought about leaving it there ... knowing that the owner would come looking for it if it was a winner - or, if not, it would be collected by the cleaning staff. Thought about it ... in the end, I decided if I couldn't trust myself, who could I trust? (The ticket was not a winner but it was a pretty green colour, and the person who had scratched it had done a very good job of removing all the - whatever you call that easily scratch-off covering they use on instant lottery tickets.)

Crasher

If you haven't heard about Crasher Squirrel yet, do a Google search and see if you can find him in the now famous photo with his new "friends".

Whacking day

Just when children in New Zealand were getting used to the no-smack policy - where it was illegal to smack children - more than 80% of their adults have voted to have that particular legislation repealed. Reading up on the thoughts and rationale about how the legislation passed at the polls in the first instance, and then what led to a vote for repeal, is now on my list of things to do.

Nice work

The Australian Army has commissioned a 3.5-year, $2.5 million study by the University of Wollongong to determine how fit is fit, and how fit someone in the army needs to do be to fulfill their particular role/s. At present, all army personnel face the "romantic idea" that they should be battle-ready at a moment's notice - even if they are support personnel confined to base. The study will question that particular notion - at a rate of $2,747.25 a day, based on a 52-week year, and a 5 day week (and trusting that my mathematics skills and calculator are working as expected).

Cutting back on complaints

Word is that the people of NSW will not be able to take their complaints about the State Government to the Ombudsman, as they used to. The Ombudsman has reportedly written to State MPs to say they may receive them instead as his office is contemplating service cuts as they run out of the readies "... for complaint handling and resolution work." It's a wonder no one thought of it sooner ... take away the complaints handling body to make the complaints go away.

One to think about

Isn't it the tiniest bit odd that you can't really play Uno by yourself? You know - Uno - Italian and Spanish for 'one'.

Telco continuation

Why do companies have databases where they keep your records if they don't keep your records? Or doesn't it work if you ask them to? I rang my Telco again on the weekend about my continuing network issues - and spent more than 20 minutes going through the issue, history, attempted fixes etc before the Customer Service Officer offered to put me through to Priority Care ... except they weren't there yet. Could he please note down the details of the call so that when I called back, I could be transferred through without having to go through the details again? Certainly, he assured me. Hmmmm. That's not exactly what happened - but I was only on for 15 minutes or so before I finally made it to Priority Care - who then only needed the short form version to finally be able to help me unlock my out-of-contract handset to see whether it or the network coverage - or possibly the SIM card - were contributing to my coverage issues. Coincidentally, when I picked up a new SIM card yesterday - might as well cover all the bases - someone else was asking about their decreased network coverage. It may finally be time to have a look for similar issues on the Internet.

Taking a gamble

Been wondering about a winning system at the casino? Wonder no more. According to today's The Sunday Telegraph, Rob Parsons - touter of "how to beat the casino at Roulette and Blackjack" (my paraphrasing) is looking to have as many people as possible use his Roulette system to protest StarCity Casino's "unfair" BlackJack dealing system. I must have misread the report because it seemed as though the system was going to be freely available ie at no cost. I've just been to look at the website mentioned in the article (I wrote that down) - but can't see anything there that supports that - so I'll just have to rely on M to keep working on her system. (I was looking at BlackJack, but if my chances at winning are decreased because of continuous shoe-shuffling or something ... maybe I can seek other ways to make my fortune.)

Loophole

This sounds pretty interesting - but you can understand why there weren't more details in the report: a New Zealand woman has been jailed for a year for defrauding a bank of more than $110,000 when she "stumbled" over an Internet banking loophole. Hope she didn't hurt herself in the process.

Overheard at The Post

"What if a little old lady comes in and buys a ticket to Athens and then drops dead because we've given her swine flu."

Upselling

"For only $5 more you can get another 6" said the young man behind the counter. For a moment I thought I was at Maccas (Fries with that?" - is that still a common practice there?) but no, it's another chain - Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I'm hanging out here using the WiFi as I wait for S to arrive (she's flying onto the airport - 1 minutes drive away) and felt obliged to buy a drink - stil cheaper than paying for airport parking. It is a day of celebration here - the 5th anniversary of the store's opening. I'm not sure if it would still be as popular with parents with small children if there wasn't today's special attractions - doughnut decorating, facepainting, fairy and magician - and a gold coin donation sausage sizzle (smells pretty good too). And popular it is. Although it would be nice if the fairy - a teenager with big blue wings - seemed more engaged and less distracted; admittedly it is one of the first times I have seen a mature fairy in the wild so I don't know if it is customary for them to be talking into a mobile phone rather than brandishing a wand. I can't wait for the magician. Really.

Why didn't they just say so

Why do people swing their arms as they walk? Some research has been done and it seems that the effort of not swinging one's arms is greater than the effort involved in swinging them. Towards the end of the report it also mentioned that not swinging one's arms actually increased the effort taken by the lower half of the body to keep everything working smoothly. I wonder if that was balance they were talking about - and if it is, why didn't they just say so?