Friday the 13th

A sop to superstition from Photobucket

Paid good money for a gig and been denied entry?

If your answer is "YES", then this should be of interest.


inthemix.com.au reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are said to be investigating claims made by disgruntled punters following the Laneway Festival in Melbourne earlier this month. The Age report that the ACCC are following up on accusations made against the event’s organisers after several hundred ticket purchasers were left stranded outside one of the festival’s stages, unable to gain entry to see artists they’d paid up to $100 to see.

At 7.30pm access to the Little Lonsdale Stage was closed for “safety reasons”, meaning many festival goers did not get the chance to see headline acts Girl Talk and Architecture In Helsinki. Following the event, organisers laid blame on a small number of punters who were causing trouble, as well as on an eleventh hour issue which forced them to greatly reduce capacity to the area. Complaints lodged with the ACCC contend that it was not noted on tickets that there would be limited access available.

In the days following the event groups began appearing on Facebook, with many irate punters demanding a refund on their ticket purchase. One group in particular, named ‘Cheated by St Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2009 – I want a refund’, has almost 800 members and included direct links through to the ACCC website for disgruntled fans to lodge complaints.

Laneway’s directors, Jerome Borazio and Danny Rogers, were understandably upset by the unfortunate incident at their Melbourne event, and are said to have promised a ‘personal phone call’ to any punter who complains to them direct. “Danny and I have read every single complaint,” Mr Borazio told The Age. “We care about what has been said and we’re looking at the reality of what we can do to restore faith in the festival. We’re devastated.”

Send your emails to :info@lanewayfestival.com.au

Image above from http://www.lanewayfestival.com.au/main#l=news/15

Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin. The theory of evolution rocks!

Today; two hundred years ago Charles Robert Darwin, the English naturalist, was born and human society became all the richer for this fact.

Do companies really have the corporate will to green their IT?

In Computer World this week:

Should CIOs get ready to add "energy czar" to their list of job roles?

McKinsey & Co., a management think tank, seems to believe as much. In a study presented last year at the Uptime Institute's Green Enterprise Computing Symposium, McKinsey called on companies to move accountability for facilities operations to the CIO and to appoint an internal energy czar to better focus on the true cost of data center ownership, which includes both equipment and facilities expenses------

With no takers willing to publicly sign on to McKinsey's challenge, Computerworld sought out companies -- including Google and Yahoo -- that are leading the charge to take control of data center energy costs. The conclusion: Corporate America is indeed thinking seriously about data center energy costs, but many companies aren't yet ready to commit to changes as sweeping as what McKinsey proposes.

Why does McKinsey advocate such a radical shift in responsibilities? Forrest points out several reasons behind the recommendation. First, data centers are usually the biggest users of energy in a corporation. Second, IT would be charged with developing and implementing the technology -- such as dashboards -- required to measure and monitor energy efficiency anyway.

And third, it's important that companies designate someone who can be held accountable for total data center costs and energy efficiency, he notes. Even in companies that have set up a "green champion," if that person isn't given the power and authority to deliver results, "it makes the job very limited," says Forrest. The company may trumpet a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent a year, for example, "but there's no means of tying that to any real executive action."

Microsoft offers free toll to calculate business carbon footprint.

Will they tar 'n' feather Danny in Corryong?

Corryong February 2009 from Flickr

Catch the Fire Ministries' Danny Nailah went into the religious twilight zone last Tuesday when he tried to say that this month's Victorian bushfires were God's punishment for abortion law reform.

Bet the poor sod's a bit worried now.

Next Saturday he's due in Corryong (which is in a northern part of the bushfire belt) for a holy spirit revival meeting.

He'll be lucky if he's not cursed all the way out of town!

Copy of Corryong revival leaflet - complete with catchy flame graphics.

"The Age" gets taken for a ride and creates serious michief along the way

On Saturday 7 February 2009 when Victoria was beginning to reel under the impact of the worst natural disaster in modern Australian history, The Age in Melbourne ran an article which baldly stated: AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.

The group calling for this jihad is supposedly currently active and going by the name Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network and it allegedly posts on the Internet, presumably on a forum website hosted out of Malaysia and written in three or possibly four languages.

The earliest mention of this supposed forest fire jihad that I can find comes from WorldNetDaily in 2003, when it also mentioned: "Australian security authorities are aware of reports that al-Qaida has considered starting bushfires in the U.S. as a form of terrorist attack," said a spokeswoman Australian Attorney General Daryl Williams. "Arson attacks are just one of a wide range of scenarios which have been considered as part of our investigations into al-Qaida's ability to conduct attacks in Australia."

Specific mention of a jihad website occurred in April 2004 when it was reported that: Meanwhile, there is evidence terrorism was behind other wildfires in Europe and Australia last summer.

According to the wingnuts, so far this 'group' appears to be responsible for forest fires in France, Greece, Italy, Australia and the U.S.

It supposedly has a six-point plan which included: setting of fires in the forests – "especially those that provide the American market with the raw materials for the wood and paper and byproducts industries";

The entire forest fire jihad plot was rehashed in January 2008 when WorldTribune ran with it again .

Now there are only 18 terrorist groups officially listed on the Australian Attorney-General's departmental website and none of these are this supposed extremist group.

Indeed if you look for this group on the world wide web it is has a remarkably low profile.
So low in fact that it is only ever mentioned by secondary sources.
It seems to be nothing more than a blustering website, which is sometimes not even online.
A situation which should have alerted The Age reporter to the fact that he might have been building with straw and, that this Internet forum was unlikely to be a group nor a credible threat.

The supposed threat reads more like a post 9/11 urban myth and The Age looks as though it was attempting a potentially divisive, hurtful and downright dangerous beat up.

Snapshot is of The Age article as displayed 10.02.09

Turnbull according to Turnbull [revisited]

As the Federal Leader of the Opposition struggles for political relevancy and dodges the metaphorical rotten fruit thrown his way by irate voters, I thought I might look back on Malcolm Turnbull's political career according to his own website.

In December 2004 Malcolm informed us that he had won the seat of Wentworth, posted his maiden speech and took the fight against a crematorium at Waverley Cemetery to Parliament among other things.

By November 2005 he was defending Israel, restating the case for tax reform, talking about sustainable cities, sending out news letters and helping his dogs launch a website during Pet Week.

Then in December 2006 Turnbull was found posting a National Press Club speech on the drought, writing about saving the Murray-Darling and water scarcity. His dogs have turned into hot canine bloggers.

When December 2007 rolled around the MP for Wentworth (still styling himself Minister for the Environment and Water Resources despite the Coalition election defeat) was firmly into Green House conferencing, communicating by Face Book, YouTube, MySpace and saving whales.

Now in Februaury 2009 one has to dodge a splash screen to enter Malcolm's website, he's added Twitter to his online communicating, he has launched another website Jobs for Australia, he proudly informs us all that he opposes the Rudd Government's second stimulus package and.............. his dogs still blog.

Waverley Cemetery doesn't have a crematorium to this day because council and the electorate were against the idea rather than because the Member for Wentworth opposed the idea.
The Murray-Darling isn't saved from environmental disaster and water is still scarce in the southern half of the continent.

These days Malcolm continues to defend Israel, talk about green house emissions, mention taxes, keep fairly silent on the plight of whales and...............his dogs still blog.

Not much to show for those years in government is it?

Turnbull cartoon from The Brisbane Times

Religious fruitcake's attempt at 15 minutes of fame

Abortion laws to blame for bush fires?

The leader of Catch the Fire Ministries (CTFM), Pastor Danny Nalliah, has made a very bold bid to secure the title of Australian Fruitcake of the Year. Oops, correction, make that Fruitcake of the Century.

Nalliah said he was not surprised by the bush fires because he had a dream last October relating to consequences of the abortion laws passed in Victoria.

In a media release, in which he said "the bushfires are a result of the incendiary abortion laws which decimate life in the womb", Nalliah called upon "all Australian Bible-believing God-fearing Christians to repent and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for His mercy and protection over Australia once again.

“Yesterday (Monday 9th February 2009), the front page of the Herald Sun newspaper reported “The Darkest hour for Victoria”. A few months ago the news media should have reported “The darkest hour for the unborn” but unfortunately the “Decriminalization of Abortion bill” went through parliament and was passed, thus making many people call Victoria ‘the baby killing state of Australia,’” Mr Nalliah said.

Breath-taking aint it!

Previously, in a biography posted on CTFM's website, Nalliah claimed that he has seen "many blind, deaf, dump [sic], crippled people healed by the power of God ... (and) a dead girl who came back to life, when he prayed for her."

Nalliah has made himself available for interviews. He can be contacted on 03 9794 8211. Readers might care to give the Pastor a call and see what other ratbag ideas he has dreamt up.

Acknowledgement: The image above was sourced from http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/author.asp?id=4177

Boy the Wonder Cat has moved to........Antarctica

I had to try it. Yes, I entered Google Latitude to see what it was all about.
Not being a mobile phone aficionado and having friends with spotty records when it comes to recharging theirs, I could see no reason why I should want to play with this new Google feature.

Then I had a thought. I could use Google to effect a digital house move for Boy the Wonder Cat.

He is now camped down in Antarctica for all the world to see, protesting against Japanese whaling in southern waters.

He is also patiently waiting for Google to update Latitude mapping so that he can move into the comfort of the Australian research station.

Care to join this intrepid little moggie?


Liberated penguins from Asymptotia