round and around

I'd really like to do one of those posts with all sorts of brilliant links that make readers go "wow" and "wtf". Everybody would be in awe, if not of my utter polymathedness, but maybe my ultra-keen ability to navigate to all sorts of bizarre corners of the wild world web and make sense of stuff.

That would be ever so good because people would be, like, "dude!".

To do this would probably (more rcently spelt "prolly", I have noticed) take me several hours and, given that many other peoples also do this sort of stuff - notably this dude - so much better, not have the intended effect.

So, in lieu, I give you the cheap and nasty VVB alternative. If you go to Anil's site you get to see stuff like this - Google vs Meetup. What's Meetup? I didn't know, so I had to Google it. Way to be ironic!

But this is really interesting. TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design. There are quite a few clips of speakers available and the list is pretty damned impressive, E O Wilson and Richard Dawkins amongst them. Although I was a little disappointed to see Bono - stone the crows he's everywhere.

I was in a workshop last week where the clip by Stewart Brand, an architect turned solver of global accommodation challenges, was shown. It was meant to be inspirational and it was. People can do anything if they put their minds to it.

There's a link between Brand's talk and what Meetup apparently is - people. That's why I think IT-based "knowledge management systems" - never seem to meet their intended objectives. What we need are gizmos - electric shocks would probably work quite well - that make people pick up the phone or get up and go to talk to someone. You read it here first. "Electric shocks for a better world." Because stories are powerful.

Now I've lost the track again. I still have a cold. Here's a picture of a naughty wolf - well, it could be a wolf - that's in a series of many similar tableaux in a park (as I recall) in Singapore. Somewhere.

public enemy

If it wasn't bad enough that the more intolerant and backward looking bits of the Islamosphere want to blow us to kingdom come (hmm, bad metaphor given what's coming...), the good old Church of England has its own variants, and I don't mean the ones that usually command the news. So, 95% of VVB's readers are going to hell? Yeah, whatever...make that an even hundred, I think.

Bloody proselytisers. Look, if you wish to believe in imaginary friends, the moon being made of green cheese or whatever, fine. The warmth and power of congregation (which is a nice word) and hymn-singing, great. I appreciate the benefits of congregation. Just keep the belief bits to yourselves and don't try to threaten me with some juvenile scare-stories. A trusting child who did what he was told without question (came from being slight and weedy and having a large and threatening father, I think), I got sucked in by a tricky clergyperson in about year 4, and I haven't forgotten it. If you have to play tricks on 8 year-olds to get them to come to Sunday school, maybe you should reflect on the power and righteousness of your message. You might find something missing.

Therese Rein is a naughty person for wanting to maximise her profits. No she's not, she's naughty for not supervising the people who do her due diligence. I'd still rather have a PM's wife who understands how the world actually works, in particular the commercial world, than one who's more obsessed with the thread count of the drapes, or something similar. A former work colleague now works for Ingeus, I must whether she's on an AWA. It is to laugh...

Bugger it, I have a cold and application of vino collapso is not working as I had hoped. So I'm off. Here's a picture. It's the Kabul Gorge which, unsurprisingly, is on the road to Kabul from Peshawar. Spectacular, no?

happy talk

I've been meaning for a while to make some comment on the frequency with which the word "fairness" or along the lines "it's only fair" has been appearing in the Howard media blitz. Way to grab the subliminal attention and all that stuff, guys. Why, "fairness" is the characteristic that people most often associate with the Born to Rule, eh? Because people would only be born to rule if they acted fairly, it stands to reason.

The daily vox-pop in the Curious Snail this morning gave the lie to the "Howard is gone" meme - 3 out of 5, as I recall, thought he was the most wondrous being the world has ever seen. Mind you, 5 is a small sample. And it is the C-M. Just a warning against hubris I guess.

Meanwhile, what really makes us happy. In VVB's case, it'll be when the Lotto comes in and we can get one of these:

Except I want it in gunmetal grey. I've had a red car, people make such unkind jokes. It's an Audi RS4, for those not into cars as much as we are. Oh, and I'd like a real one, not a model.

I do believe it's getting better..

..better, all the time
(It can't get no worse)

...sang the Beatles.

And in all sorts of ways, it is. For example, I get the Australian Institute of Management's monthly magazine which is always chock full of useful and interesting and, dare one say it, necessary things that managers should be doing to improve productivity by improving life at work. And this month's edition is no exception, with a substantial article on how making work life as attractive as possible gets results for all concerned.

From OH&S to job design to employee participation in decision-making to two doona days a year, there are a whole of factors, mostly pretty damn simple and commonsensical, that contribute to an active and engaged workforce that's willing, in fact happy, to go the extra mile.

Now the folks at AIM don't strike me as a bunch of rabid socialists, all this is grounded in theory and practice and is aimed at, yes again, higher productivity that is likely to get managers promoted. Even BRW runs articles like this.

Except that managers are expected to do this in a legislative environment, no longer called WorkChoices except in extant legislation, that drives lowest-common-denominator behaviour. Which has guess what outcome?

Chateau VVB will manfully, personfully even, resist making a whole series of obvious cheap gibes. If you're reading here you know how it'll run already.

But reflecting a rather interesting workshop today which at one stage descended (maybe ascended in fact) into a lively debate about capitalism vs socialism with everyone in furious agreement yet starting their sentences with "...but", we all know we have do start doing things differently and better, and starting now. Keeping that enthusiasm going and spreading the word which only seems commonsensical to a minority is the challenge.

The AIM mag also has a piece of depression at work, particularly among senior managers. This is a group who, consistent with that honoured Australian culture wherein blokes, particularly senior blokes, never admit to any weakness, are suffering depression in secret and wondering what's wrong with them. The more this type of info gets around the better.

There's also a piece about Julie Bishop that I'll pass on, thanks.

One other piece of good news at Casa VVB is that the brew of apple cider which we got going at the weekend has only now started to bubble. The can said that this mix ferments over a longer period than beer, but made no mention of being slower to start. Well it does. Should be interesting, it's starting to smell quite appley. Just as well.

through a glass onion

It's a slow Sunday night at Chateau vvb. All our outrage that the original, fair and balanced components of WorkChoices that were Protected by Law have now been Changed by Law or perhaps, more apocalyptically, Overturned by Law has been ebbing away. If our Law can be Overturned, or perhaps even more apocalyptically, Undermined, where are we to turn.

Well, in this instance at least, to The Onion. I used to read it all the time but hadn't been there for a while. One of my favourite columns is American Voices. While I could have linked to any quantity of these, here's just one: great comedy. Bet you click through to another...

kind of blue

Reasonably frequently I have a look at the newspaper from our old home town, Canberra, to see what's exercising the locals. Also because they have one of the country's better cartoonists, Geoff Pryor.

Anyway amongst the very local trivia, principal amongst which is the utter incompetence of the pretend local government to which even the left-leaning Times gives a pasting, you occasionally get a story which is just too local to hit the big time. Anything related to the public service, for example.

Which brings us to this sordid little tale of the federal government's approach to public management and accountability. Public servant refuses to lie to preserve the government's flexibility to shut down dissent wherever it might raise its head. That's what they've been doing for 11 years, particularly in the realm of overseas aid.

I guess this is hardly new, it goes on everywhere and at any time. But there's an awfully long history of this with weasel Howard and, because I don't like very much what he's done to the country, it appears to me that he and his gang of gutless spivs have again raised this to something of an art form.

Well, he's certainly been looking at the polls and reading the tea-leaves of the focus groups because the new ads for superannuation and private medical insurance are both at pains to highlight the 'fairness' in the system. "It's only fair" pops up everywhere.

So, people recognise that the country has become more unfair under his backward-looking little reign. And it's more than $33m salaries (although such instances make awfully telling examples), it's all the little things. Just like the Iraqis, we are finding out over time that repeating the words "freedom", "liberty" and "democracy" does not actually mean you have them.

On another tack entirely, the voyage of self-discovery of yer 'umble correspondent took another small step this evening through the completion of some standardised online tests. Nothing at all outstanding or innovative about them, the real value will come from how they get interpreted by the experts and what advice they give me. I am quite looking forward to that.

A couple of minutes later, an update...

Here's a letter to the editor of the Canberra Times:

Labor's Australia: old France without the cheese

Whatever happened to the shibboleth that oppositions don't win elections, governments lose them? This Government has been an exemplary one, starting with the courageous, almost unbelievable defeat of the wharfies, overseeing the collapse of all but the public-sector unions, introduction of the GST, general fiscal responsibility, freeing of the economy and support for the West internationally against evil two-bit dictatorships and the humbug tolerance of them in the UN and by the left.

Even Ken Henry, with no affiliation or affection for the current government, admits that it is the best Australia has had in 50 years. If the Government survives, it may have to look at past and current immigration policy, as that seems to be where the problem lies. That could take even more courage than confronting the wharfies.

Australia risks ending up crippled like pre-Sarkozy France, except for McDonald's, the cheese and clean, cheap nuclear power.
Chris Smith,
Braddon

I'll be interested to see whether Mr Smith draws any responses from the mainly left-leaning readers of the left-leaning paper. In the meantime, I would simply say:
(1) Freeing the economy?
Whitlam - 25% reduction in tariffs
Hawke - floating the dollar
Howard - GST?

(2) Support against evil two-bit dictatorships?
Burma?
Mugabe (oh I forget, we're not sending the cricket team).

(3) "...past and current immigation policy, as that seems to be where the problem lies."
Which particular problem are we referring to?

(4) And let's suspend any adulation for M Sarkozy until he actually does something, eh?

No point looking for logic when the talking points will suffice.

the song remains the same

Got the news on the TV behind me, the PM says that WorkChoices will be described in simple language because people are "confused". I don't think people are at all confused, and that's why the polls are the way they are. But even if there is massive confusion, let VVB be the ever helpful service that it is and suggest a new ad campaign in simple, easy to understand language.

Dear employee

You're fucked.

Uncle Joe and John

The I-rack

'cos I don't know how to post youtube links and make them appear like the screenshot, here's a link. Please, watch it, it's the funniest thing I've seen for ages.

And cutting, too. Not for Bush supporters.

Or Apple fanatics, for that matter.

all the small things

VVB as rule doesn't pinch from Crikey which is a struggling subscription-based start-up alternative to the dreaded and dreadful MSM and needs to protect its IP. So, just this once. Until next time. Here's an extract from commentary on the ABC's Bastard Boys:

Julian Burnside
As reported by AAP:
I thought Rhys Muldoon did a terrific job actually.
Watching him, especially in the court scenes was uncannily like being myself. I
thought he did a great job, he picked up on my mannerisms with great accuracy.
On the factual accuracy of the show:
I thought the series overall did a very good job. In particular, I thought it made (Patrick Corporation CEO) Chris Corrigan look like the sort of guy you could sympathise with and like…And, I think that's pretty good because, after all, it was a government in a criminal conspiracy with a big company to break its own laws.
Chris Corrigan
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Corrigan said: It's a puff for Greg Combet and it just happens to coincide with his run for Parliament. It's virtually worshipful, putting him in the most favourable light. I think the Government gets off very lightly, given that they concocted the whole scheme and John Howard personally signed off on it. We have the cabinet documents, and he signed off on the sacking of the entire workforce.

Just in case you misread that, here it is again from that impeccable source, the Daily Telegraph.

Now, what particular piece of that admittedly small snippet kind of grabs your attention?

No, not the bit about the government "concocting the whole scheme" Howard "personally signing off" on an action to break the laws of the country of which he was Prime Minister.

No, this: "We have the cabinet (sic) documents."

Cabinet documents. Really.

How.

And why.

And do the rest of us get to see documents that directly affect our well being. Like the ones on the budget figures that the Treasurer successfully defended from public view only a little while ago because they would have laid bare the logical, moral and intellectual vacuum at the centre of the government's supposedly impeccable economic management credentials.

One law for the rich.

One for the PM (although it's not really a law if a Prime Minister can kind of, you know, just override it).

And one for all of us.

You know what that means.

Just don't forget it. (Scroll down to no 6!)

Goodnight, my lovelies.

Update 16 May: Crikey has this in its corrections column today:

Thomas Hunter writes: Re. "Bastard Boys II: What the critics say" (yesterday, item 12). Yesterday we attributed the following quote to Chris Corrigan: “I think the Government gets off very lightly, given that they concocted the whole scheme and John Howard personally signed off on it. We have the cabinet documents, and he signed off on the sacking of the entire workforce.” Apologies to Mr Corrigan. That comment was in fact made by Greg Combet.

So the unions had the Cabinet documents? WTF? Looks like I've missed something, but I don't know what it is, do I, Mr Jones.

doubts, I've had a few

Hey look, what about the private health fund television advertisement onslaught? What gives? Well, apart from an imminent election, I mean.

We are being sold the whole kit and kaboodle all over again. We have to have the private health funds because there isn't enough money for public health. And we have to subsidise the private health fund because otherwise no one would use them and we'd have to give the money to the public health system.

And we have to threaten you to join the private health system by putting a loading on your contributions. And we have to set everyone up against everyone else - you wouldn't want to be subsidising those freeloaders, would you? Heck, they could be Muslims. Or worse, Labor voters.

And of course the private health funds go to extraordinary lengths to make it difficult to compare allegedly similar offerings so we're going to pay someone to compare them for you.

Hello? Like every sector whose companies used to just offer services but are now in competition. Are you going to set up a system where someone compares offerings from energy companies, telecommunications companies, all the other bloody services we used to get at a reasonable price and without cold callers ringing you up right on roast lamb time to sell you something you've already got. And that's leaving out where we always had compettition, such as insurance.

Fuck this, the whole world is going plumb insane.

Guess who this is: "We don't want to do anything that gives any skerrick of comfort to Mugabe's regime". Here's a hint - it's a voice like fingernails down a blackboard. Here's a hint for you, you twat: Invade. That's what you did last time, isn't it? What's different now? It's cricket, for crying out loud, this is serious.

I couldn't believe it was true

For anybody who reads this blog - all three of you - who don't read Peter Martin, Economics Editor for the Canberra Times, here's a link to an article by him analysing a possible reason behind the apparent drop in productivity in Australia over the last 5 or 6 years. Previous recent articles have also looked at the productivity data.

However, Martin now goes one step further by drawing a possible link to the Keating workplace reforms, Enterprise Bargaining Agreements. Martin points out that EBAs were meant to be negotiated on a workplace basis, drawing management and employees together in a collaborative process aimed at delivering benefits for all parties. By contrast, WorkChoices pits stronger management against weaker individuals, and pits individuals against each other.

If anything, the lack of common sense behind such a design simply reinforces the fairly commonly held view that WorkChoices was all about driving a stake through the heart of the union movement first and delivering concomitant benefits to capital second. Any thought that it would deliver national benefits is risible.

Having read a few of Peter Martin's columns recently, it's nice to see a new (ish?) economics commentator on the scene who doesn't just chew and regurgitate Government press releases.
I couldn't believe it was true. (But I hope it is).

back on the chain gang

Well Chateau VVB is back on line thanks to Hung the 'pooter wizard. Altho' he hasn't spread his wizardry to all corners of the ranch, we still have a networked computer that isn't.

The e-mail address book has disappeared but may be retrievable. Fortunately, all the photos and files have been retrieved including those from some of our years overseas that Mrs VVB had started scanning to disk. Many of those photos in albums had begun to fade, being quite old. Also, most of those from Pakistan days suffered additionally from local printing, where the chemicals were undoubtedly (a) already old and (b) probably diluted.

But in honour of those days, here's a photo of a restaurant whose name I found appealing in my younger and coarser days. Of course, in Latin it means "with with" and no doubt that was the owner's intention.

Apart from that, nothing really to say about the recent political stuff. Costello damned the Rudd budget in reply as lacking vision for the economy in the future. Fair cop, we should usually look to Labor to put people first to some extent: an extent that shrinks each year, of course. Praise be to globalisation!

48 crash

After a weekend of security software woes, the motherboard threw up its...bits...and died earlier this week. So we had Hung the repair bloke in today to set up offspring no 2's new Dell as the main 'pooter and he took the dead one away to see if it could be resuscitated. Let's hope so - that's where all the piccies, and CVs, and other stuff including favourites settings etc were stored. When the security programs started malfunctioning we'd tried to save all that but two attempts to burn to disk had failed as it kept telling I had the wrong type of disk, even though I (surprise) used different sorts of disks. Remember my comment the other day about how much 'technical' stuff you need to know to keep a home 'pooter going? Well, QE bloody D.

And offspring no 2 uses her (even newer) Mac notebook. She does well for someone without a full time job, eh? How does this happen?

Let me tell you: transfer payments. Economic vandalism. Voodoo economics.

I'll never get my Audi RS4 at this rate...

And there won't be any more Tasmania pictures unless we can retrieve from the old hard disk.

bad sneakers*

Here's a very very interesting article in that bastion of all things trendy and socialistic, the Guardian, on France's new President Sarkozy and what he might mean for la belle France.

France is different - it exists to remind us that there are different ways of doing things. It's not perfect, and its ways of doing things are deeply rooted in culture which means that even if laissez faire took hold (well at least a greater proportion of the citizens would understand what it meant) and managerialism triumphed, it wouldn't be the full Washington Consensus model. The same as if Australia were to adopt a more Francophone attitude to holidays and lunch.

However, the article expresses some doubt whether Sarkozy believes in as flat an earth as many cheering Hayekian commentators hope he does.

I thought the article glossed a bit over fairly extensive poverty and inequality in the US and UK. No doubt (he said, without bothering to research the stats) the unemployment rate in France is higher - I mean, look at us here with 3.75% or whatever it is. Yes, we've got the jobs and you need to have one to put the food (more on food in a minute) on the table, but many are part-time or casual or temporary. It's a job, but it's precarious and it's closer to existing than living, I would argue. Easy for me to say in my comfortable position, granted.

Yeah, food. After some decades of efficiency-driven food production: industrial agriculture, feedlots, reducing plant breed diversity, 'supply chain management', importing cheaper rather than buying better locally, supermarkets and lots of processing, we're only now waking up to the fact that the model may not be sustainable. Or good for our health and that of our children, more to the point. Slow food, buying locally, reducing the carbon cost of transporting food, eating fresher. It's got a bit to recommend it, eh?

And the humungous subsidies that have been paid to protect la vie in rural France, on the back of tariffs on our own oh-so-efficient agricultural exports? Yes, agreed, humungous. Yes, not at all economically sound in a single-bottom-line way of thinking. But in recent years I've heard some awfully similar rhetoric from rural Australia as economic change (and the drought, of course) buries deeper into the rural way of life. And not all of it from RM Williams clad National Party voters, either. You recognise that it is valuable, you want to protect it, someone gotta pay. Somehow. Transfer payments, cross-subsidisation, community service obligations and so on. Take your pick, but if the fast-becoming-mythical Australia is worth preserving, the free market will not deliver that unless there's something local that enough people will pay enough to see. By which I do not mean The Big Swaggie or whatever.

So let's watch M. Sarkozy: the rhetoric and the reality. No doubt the article makes a valid point when it says that France's current situation isn't sustainable. Babies, bathwater, agreed. Let's hope they get it right and stuff it up the nose of the flat-earthers. Let them eat McDonald's.

*Oh, Bad Sneakers? Look at the chorus: "I'm going in Seine".

La Boom Boom.

every picture tells a story

Just for something to do - well, I could be working on the business plan, but... - I thought I'd post some more photos of the Tassie holiday. This one is on some fungus on a fallen log along a walking track (Keogh's) near the Tahune Airwalk.

This one is the creek that ran alongside the same path.

This one is Stanley, taken from the top of the geological formation known as The Nut that towers alongside the village. Stanley was without a doubt the cleanest, neatest town I've ever seen. I think I saw it had won a Tidy Town award at some time and I wasn't surprised. It was just like an English seaside village.

The church at Port Arthur.

General view of Port Arthur.

hit me with your best shot

As is his wont, Ross Gittins nails it perfectly today as he labels the politics behind SerfChoices (dunno where I stole that from but it's good) as a return to class warfare that John Howard thinks he can win. The public memory may not be short but it is certainly a bit selective, and Howard is still playing on the race memory of union activism from 30 years.

Gittins concludes by wondering why more of the commentariat don't see Howard's ploy for the "try-on" that it is. Maybe it's because the media is not as "leftist"-dominated as we incessantly are told?

Chateau VVB is currently in the grip of computeritis. We had been using Macafee as our security program, having ditched Norton some years ago. However it was becoming increasingly evident that we were still being infiltrated by nasties. Mrs VVB, who does most of our computer fixing (because she has far more patience than me), had downloaded another major security package on a trial basis, on the basis of a recommendation from a shop.

It seems to be blocking more stuff - well, it seems to be doing more stuff - but we're getting constant messages advising us of things that may or may not have happened.

It strikes me as a real demonstration of "how we live now" that you have to be extremely expert in highly technical stuff to run a home computer. If your car breaks down it's unlikely that you could fix it yourself, but at least cars don't break down regularly any more. Computing on the other hand seems to throw up problems on an alarmingly regular basis and you've got to have a fair knowledge of what's going on, otherwise you'd be paying squillions to get someone in, it seems to me. How do you folk who run home-based businesses fare?

However, one benefit is that we can once again access our online banking from the main downstairs computer: we simply failed at setting up Macafee to allow the cookies running the bank's security to let us in. We had the networked upstairs computer on a different security package, so that's where we did the banking. Now, we can't link to the upstairs computer...

We are also getting the odd porn site getting through the new firewall. Makes for interesting conversation.

get it on (bang a gong)

Well I don't know how it's happened but suddenly the need to post every day has just dissipated. Yep, she's gone, just disparu. So what you'll get here is pretty much just a random smattering of stuff where I came, I saw and thought it was sorta kinda interesting but if you don't find it thus, well, tough.

(1) Why does SBS feel it needs to air a "some viewers may find this program offensive" warning for Iron Chef, for crying out loud? Who's going to be offended - those intolerant of iron?

(2) What about the print and TV ads for the private medical insurance system? What's brought that on? Early election, anyone? I love it, my tax dollars at work. How about chucking it into Medibank, you bastards? Oh, we have to support the private system? Of course, I like totally understand.

(Interlude: Bang a gong, we are on!).

(3) Julia Gillard needs to drop the year 11 debating team phrasing. If that's her normal mode of delivery then it needs to change, quick smart.

(4) The drought and its immediate effect on the spreading acres of chateau VVB. When we first moved here, I used to sweep up the leaves every Saturday morning. That eventually reduced to every fortnight. We've tried various leaf vacuums and blowers, both petrol and electric. I currently have a nice wide yard broom which is not only environmentally friendlier but also quicker. But getting out every weekend is still a pain so there's only a couple of bits I do that regularly.

Today I went down to the pool area and the quantity of very dry, brown leaves all around was astounding. The pool's been shut - it has a leak and as we can't fill it, the water doesn't come up the skimmer box level any more. We'll have to buy water to put in so I can run it when the bloke who has the machine that finds leaks (and goes bing, presumably) comes out. That's going to be an expensive repair. The trees are thinning out, the leaves look dry and lifeless. But when I look in the real estate section of the weekly magazine, everything's so green. How so, I wonder?

(5) Why would spell check not pick up sorta and kinda. Oh, I know...

Anyway, gotta go, time for Rockwiz. During the week I picked up some Stevie Ray Vaughan and today I got some Fabulous Thunderbirds and Glenn Shorrock's new acoustic album. The car was telling it needed new music. What it really needs is some new rear speakers as one has started buzzing in a really bad way. At least rears can be replaced more cheaply than front splits.

Until next time, stay safe, my lovelies.

Update:
Oh frabjous day, my favourite TV non-personality, Dugald, is back on Rockwiz.

And you won't be staying safe if John McCain, a Republican nominee for the 2008 presidency, has his way. Terry Jones, once a Python, tells you why. Tell me, is the whole political world stark barking mad? "I've declared the USSR illegal". "Mission accomplished". "Protected by law".

The world was so much simpler when Marc Bolan sang about riding white swans, eh?

helpchildless

Chateau VVB's theory on the Heffernan/Gillard affair is simple. Howard put Heffernan up to it. The Libs had thrown everything including the kitchen sink at Rudd but the polling still showed lots of support. So, let's turn to the next target. Conveniently, Heffernan had expressed his views about childless potential deputy PMs a year ago, so it wouldn't raise any suspicions if he simply reiterated them for the Bulletin interview.

Howard's and Heffernan's follow-up comments, the so-called apology' along with the confected outrage from other senior Libs all set the scene. But there's plenty of punters out there with views similar to 'Senator' Heffernan. " So, let's get a handle on what proportion of the populace, shall we, and where they live." "What a spiffing good idea. Hello, get me Mark Textor."

Conspiracy theories are so much more fun than real life, n'est pas? The thing is...we all know there's no depth to which Howard wouldn't stoop, so.......you know it makes sense.