Horse 1141 - Did Not Do The Work

The rewards for labour are wages and salaries. Labour being one of the basic four factors of production, is like any other commodity subject to the forces of supply and demand. Therefore the price of labour is determined not by a person's actual worth of input, but by the market price that that input is valued at.

I think that there a disconnect between actual worth and market value. Many people and especially theoretical economists would disagree with me, but I shall attempt to explain myself.

Suppose that you have a firm making widgets. There are people on the factory floor who operate the widget making machines, and elsewhere you have management, accounting, and ancilliary staff like cleaners and maintenance workers. All of which are important to the effective running of the company, and without them not only the factory but the firm would come to a halt. Their wages however I think do not actually reflect "worth" but market value.

I think that there is a great deal of difference between what workers are actually worth and what they are paid. People who are paid less often return multiples of their wage in value to their firms, whereas at the other extreme, plenty of managers, opera singers and people like premiership footballers are overpaid for what they actually do.
I'm not suggesting that management, opera singers and footballers don't work hard or long for their money. But at some point I think that there is a line where people are paid rewards for the effective work that someone else has produced.

The most obvious example of this is shareholders. Quite rightly shareholders as contributors of capital are paid the due reward for their capital as dividends, but the shareholders themselves contribute no work to the firm whatsoever and without them, there would unlikely be a firm at all.

Personally I suspect that there is a smudgy line which can be drawn; above which point the people who are paid those wages do not actually work for them.

The minimum weekly wage in Australia as at 1 Oct 2009 was $543.78 per week. I assume that this was for a 37.5 hour week giving us $14.50. Assuming that there is a real increase depending on actual skill involved if you double this you end up with $29.00 per hour. Also assuming that instead of working a 37.5 hour week, someone worked an 70 hour week, we end up with $2030 per week or roughly $106,000 a year.

I will go out on a limb and suggest that everyone earning more than $106,000 didn't actually work for their money, but at some point is profiting from the work of other people. I'm not suggesting that this is the result of economic graft, but I am suggesting that it is practically impossible to actually do the work required to earn that money.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/axa-boss-bows-out-with-17m-swansong-20110117-19u48.html

The combined payout, which includes benefits and options built over his time with AXA, would give Mr (Andrew) Penn a higher pay than the $16 million received by the Commonwealth Bank CEO, Ralph Norris, last year.

As a shareholder of the Commonwealth Bank I ask the question if Ralph Norris is really worth $16m a year? Did he work for that money or was he paid the because of the forces of supply and demand? I know that I could fulfil that job maybe not as well, but at even 1% of that salary I'm pretty confident that I still would not be able to actually work for it.

Horse 1140 - Pay TV 6 - Australia 0

Australia winning the Asian Cup Semi-Final on Australia Day, in a crushing defeat of Uzbekistan 6-0. This is the stuff that legends are built on; this is the sort of thing that writes the story of football in this country and inspires the next generation to follow on the glory trail.

Except...

If you didn't happen to have cable television you would have seen NOTHING (except highlights on the news later).

On October 12 2005 (which is a night forever etched into my memory), Australia beat Uruguay 1-0 on home soil to force extra-time and a subsequent penalty shoot-out which they won 4-2. This mean that for the first time since 1974, Australia qualified for a World Cup.

Fast forward 5 and half years, and Australia has made it into the Asian Football Cup Final, but unlike 2005, the events of 2011 will not be seen by the majority of people.
It is utterly disgraceful amidst calls of wanting to "grow the game" in this country that even when the national side makes it into a final, the match isn't shown on free-to-air television.

Of course marketing people will say that it costs money to show live sport and that putting it on pay television puts it into an audience which is prepared to pay for it. But therein lies a conundrum. How do you expand interest to people who wouldn't ordinarily watch the game whilst at the same time those people can't watch the game?

How is it that the people of Uzbekistan saw the Australia-Uzbekistan game LIVE on MRTK1 but the majority of Australians didn't? I bet that more people in Tashkentsaw the match than the whole of Australia on Australia Day. How's that for a sense of national pride?

I think I might move to a third-world country so that I can watch Australia play.

Horse 1139 - Government Surpluses and Deficits

Quite aside from whereabouts on the political spectrum you sit, is the discussion of how the economy works. Personally I rather like the "five sector circular flow of income model" because in broad terms it is very inclusive of pretty well much everything.
The Five Sectors in the model are as follows: Households, Companies, Government, Financial Institutions, and Overseas. All of them have different effects and parts to play in the economy.

The basic equation for total income in the economy can be described with a relatively simple equation:

Income = (C+I+G+X) - (S+T+M)

Income = (Consumer Spending + Investment Spending + Government Spending + Receipts on Exports) minus (Savings + Taxation + Payments for Imports)

The reasoning behind this is surprisingly sound. Basic economic theory states that the level of income in the economy is dictated by "all inputs less all outputs". Inputs and Outputs into the economy are otherwise known as leakages and injections, and perhaps it goes without saying that an excess of leakages will shrink the economy and an excess of injections will grow the economy.

The question from my little corner of the Twittersphere has to do with the effects of Government Spending on the economy.

The Government sector in broad terms has both an in box and an out box of money, Taxation and Government Spending. Taxation is a leakage, and Government Spending is an injection.
A Government Surplus occurs when the Government takes more in Taxation receipts than it spends in Spending. Obviously if Taxation is a leakage and Government Spending is an injection and the overall effect is an excess of Taxation, then the net effect is a leakage from the economy and the economy shrinks.
Likewise an excess in the amount of Government Spending, increases the amount of money being pushed back into economy and therefore is an overall injection into the economy and the economy grows.

If I was Grand Poobah and Lord High Everything Else, then I would seriously advocate Surpluses as the economy moved into periods of boom to slow down economic growth and likewise move to Deficits as the economy moved into periods of bust to speed up economic growth.

Of course I realise that Countercyclical Policy sounds exactly like something out of Keynesian economics, but given the results that the Second World War effectively ended the Great Depression, the Stimulus Package in Australia in 2009 meant that Australia was the only country except China in the industrialised world to avoid a recession, and the ongoing policy since 1945 of the USA, I think that it's a sound idea in principle and practice.

Actually when it comes to the overall effect that Government has on the economy it perhaps isn't all that large. Using GDP as a measure, then Government Debt in Australia is only about 8% of GDP and Government Spending accounts for only $71bn which is only 7% of GDP. I don't think people can complain much about that.

Horse 1136 addenda - Scary

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/criminals-may-be-microchipped-one-day-mal-hyde-tells-forum/story-e6frea83-1225993685510

SERIOUS criminals might one day be microchipped as a crime prevention measure, SA Police Commissioner Mal Hyde has told a forum in Adelaide.

Mr Hyde said though the remark was "flippant", rapid developments in electronic crime detection would lead to changes not considered today.

"I'd like to microchip a lot of different people, just to be a little bit flippant about it, but I don't think that's going to happen," said Mr Hyde, a key-note speaker at the Asian Pacific Crime Prevention forum.

"I say it sort of flippantly, but who knows, because attitudes change so much?"

Who knows indeed, because attitudes change so much? Criminals tomorrow? Everyone else the day after that?

Horse 1138 - Exit Holden, Stage Left - Enter Opel, Stage Right.

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/51261/2011-barina-makes-us-market-debut-as-chevrolet-sonic

Chevrolet's new Sonic hatch and sedan models have at last made their US market debut this week, bringing its one step closer to its Australian launch as the new 2012 Holden Barina.

Known in the US market until recently as the Chevrolet Aveo, the new Barina is expected to go on sale in Australia, replacing the current fifth-generation Barina - at which time it will be nearly six years old.

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/51268/opel-to-launch-in-australia-in-2012-official

Following reports last year that a local launch was on the table, General Motors has today announced that its premium European brand Opel will hit the Australian market in 2012.

Among the models confirmed for Australia will be the Insignia (winner of the European Car of the Year award in 2009) along with the new Astra (sold in earlier guises locally as the Holden Astra) and the recently upgraded Corsa (also sold in earlier incarnations as the Holden Barina).

I think that I spot a trend here.
General Motors are deliberately trying to rubbish the Holden brand in Australia, so that people will vote with their wallets and go out and buy Opels. Then once the Australian division falls over entirely, they'll cease production of the Commodore and thus not have to worry about Australia at all.

When you think about it, Holden basically shot themselves in the foot more than 2 years ago. When the Vectra was replaced with the 2009 European Car of the Year, the Opel Insignia, Holden instead of making the logical switch foisted upon Australians the Daewoo Tosca under the nameplate Holden Epica.
Do you know anyone who has or would ever knowingly choose to buy one of these?

Likewise they replaced the Opel Astra with the Daewoo Lacetti otherwise known as the Cruze, and their small car the Opel Corsa which was sold as the Barina was replaced with the Daewoo Gentra which retained the Barina name.
The Barina XC (Corsa) had a four-star ANCAP safety rating and the Barina TK (Gentra) when it was released had a two-star ANCAP safety rating. Even to this day a 2005 model Barina still has a higher resale value than a 2011 Barina according to what I've seen out in the car yards.

Over at Ford they've given us the Focus, the Fiesta and the Mondeo, all of which have either won or have been within 2 points of carrying off the coveted European Car of the Year title at some point, and its starting to show in the sales figures.

I'm wondering what's going to happen when Opel start giving us some of those lovely Opel Performace Centre (OPC) offerings. The Corsa OPC outperforms the Mini Cooper S Turbo in every department and at least in Germany, comes in at 25% cheaper.
Personally I think that it looks a whole heap cooler than the Barina, but not quite as cool as the Mini.

Basically I think that the long term strategy from GM Head Office is thus:
1. Bring in Opel to compete with Holden by selling higher quality cars.
2. When Holden isn't able to justify it's existance through flagging profit margins cull the brand.
3. End production of the Commodore because of Holden's demise.

The current VE had A$1bn spent on developing the platform (Zeta) which became the basis for the Chevrolet Camaro, but when the model cycle ends in 2015, I don't think it will be renewed.

Holden tried to sell the Monaro (as the Pontiac GTO) to the US, and the Commodore as the (as the Pontiac G8), when GM pulled the plug on Pontiac, Holden found that its biggest export market died. Maybe the ploy in Oz is to attack the trunk so that the tree falls over.

Either way, if Holden do continue to sell Crap Dressed up as Cheesecake under their badge, I'm going to buy Chocolate Bavarian built in Bavaria by Bavarians... or is that Black Forest Cake made in der Black Forest by der kleine elfs?

Horse 1137 - Southern Sudan - Puönmït

Amidst the news of flooding in Queensland and the shooting of a US Congresslady, there is a spark of hope in the news this week. The people of Southern Sudan have gone to the polls to vote on their independence, and although there have been a few minor scuffles in provinces which border the North, it has been relatively peaceful.

Sudan is Africa's largest country by area, and is administered both from Khartoum in the north and Juba in the south, following two civil wars and other conflicts.

The people of Southern Sudan have gone to the polls for a referendum on their independence and runs from 9th to 15th January 2011. The province of Abyei will hold a separate referendum as will South Kurdufan and Blue Nile which will hold a "popular plebecite".

The BBC World Service has reported that in Southern Sudan a carnival atmosphere has broken out around some polling places, and when they interview people from the country, they seem not to talk of their "independence" but rather of their "freedom" from the North.

Northern Sudan for want of a better word is a nominally Arabic speaking and Muslim country and the South would become a nominally Christian and Animistic country which speaks English a pidgin form of Arabic known as Juba Arabic and several African languages including Dinka.

This of course presents several challenges for not just the fledgling nation should it acheive independence, but poses serious questions for the other nations in Africa. Some commentators are talking about the "Balkanisation" of Africa, with implications for Nigeria and the Congo. Indeed it asks the most fundamental questions as to what does and/or possibly should constitute nationhood.

If Southern Sudan does acheive its independence, then almost certainly it would change its name to reflect the new nation. One of the names which was suggested is Puönmït. Puönmït is a Dinka word which means "Happiness". Surely that would be one of the greatest names for a country that has ever been put forward. I personally do hope the greatest amount of puönmït for Southern Sudan (or Puönmït).

Horse 1136 - Tap N Pay

http://www.paypass.com/

MasterCard PayPass is a new “contactless” way to pay. It is like having exact change wherever you go. A simple tap of your card, key fob, or mobile phone is all it takes to pay at checkout.
It’s ideal when speed is esential, like at participating quick-service restaurants, gas stations, pharmacies, movie theaters, and more.

What a top idea.

We live in increasingly impatient times. Supermarket queues are annoying, and because the chances of being robbed and the incidence of violent crime are also on the increase, carrying cash becomes ever more precarious.

As the PayPass blurb says, it is a “contactless” way to pay for things. All it requires to operate is a simple wave of your MasterCard or the equivalent Visa payWave card near the reader and the exact amount of money instantly transfers between accounts. It couldn't be simpler.

Security however does appear to be an issue though. If someone else were to get hold of your card either through accident or because they stole your wallet or something, then they could just as easily use it to buy things on your account. I believe however that I have an adequate solution to this problem though:


http://www.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/residents/animal-services/animal-registrations.cfm

When an animal is microchipped its identification details are entered onto the NSW Companion Animals Register. A certificate is issued to the owner receipting the entry of their animal's details.

Microchips are about the same size as a large grain of rice. They are very safe. Your pet will feel little pain as the chip is inserted quickly and safely under the skin between the shoulders.

You'd never need worry about losing your wallet or your credit cards again. If we could institute a system where people could be microchipped then just as easily as operating the PayPass system, thye could simply swipe their hand near the checkout. A microchip about the size of a large grain of rice wouldn't hurt to have implanted and if we employed very low voltage lithium battery technology, then it could run quite effortlessly for years.

Mind you, it could be said that someone did have this idea long before I did:

All people were forced to put a mark on their right hand or forehead. Whether they were powerful or weak, rich or poor, free people or slaves, they all had to have this mark, or else they could not buy or sell anything.

- Revelation 13:16-17

I don't think that people would be coersively forced to have a chip installed but with the slow phasing out of cash, it might become increasingly difficult for people to buy or sell anything without it.

Of course you might dismiss me as being totally paranoid about "the mark of the beast" and the end of the world but as with any new technology I bet that some people would be willing of their own accord to be implated. In fact some already have been fitted with something similar:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3697940.stm

The idea of having my very own microchip implanted in my body appealed. I have always been an early adopter, so why not. Last week I headed for the bright lights of the Catalan city of Barcelona to enter the exclusive VIP Baja Beach Club.

The night club offers its VIP clients the opportunity to have a syringe-injected microchip implanted in their upper arms that not only gives them special access to VIP lounges, but also acts as a debit account from which they can pay for drinks.

This sort of thing is handy for a beach club where bikinis and board shorts are the uniform and carrying a wallet or purse is really not practical.

Take a note of the date here: 29 September, 2004. This was six years ago.

I could of course be talking complete rubbish this point, but the company which supplies the RFID tages for MasterCard PayPass, Visa payWave and microchips for animals are also touting thr benefits of tracking criminals in gaol, and even babies:

http://www.secureidnews.com/2005/04/01/verichip-acquires-exi-wireless

HALO is the leading system for infant hospital security, helping healthcare facilities prevent infant abductions, accidental baby switching, and medical equipment theft and loss while providing a safe work environment for facility staff.

Still, you have to admit that MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave is a pretty cool way to pay for things. I on the other hand, walked out of Bunnings the other day with a spark plug and air filter for the lawnmower using a trusted method that has been in use since c.750BC... cash.

Horse 1135 - Having A Barry

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/27/3102222.htm

"If we don't make a start to projects like the northwest rail link, I don't intend to contest the election after," Mr O'Farrell said.

"I am determined to deliver the infrastructure, to get on with starting those projects that this city and this state needs. I want to be seen as the infrastructure premier, because that's certainly what we need in this state after 16 years of Labor."

- Barry O'Farrell, 27th Dec 2010

I don't understand Barry. It was you who 12 months previous called for the scrapping of the northwest rail link, and yet here we are asking for it to be built again? Perhaps you need a reminder of what you said...

"She needs to scrap the metro that no one wants. It's simply incredible, even within her first day, the former planning minister doesn't seem to have a view as to whether this metro is to proceed or not. It raises real concerns about who's making the decisions."

- Barry O'Farrell, 4th Dec 2009 (from ABC Radio).

Considering that the railway line to Castle Hill promised by the Dibbs government in 1891 still hasn’t been built, don’t hold your breath waiting for Mr O'Farrell to start "those projects that this city and this state needs". Also considering previous NSW Liberal's track record (pun intended) in selling off the State Bank of New South Wales, GIO and NSW Grain Corporation, how long would it be after building the northwest rail link, it would be sold off as well?

Well Mr O'Farrell, what say ye now?

Colt 1134.1 - Mount Druitt

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Druitt,_New_South_Wales 
Demographics
The 2001 City of Blacktown Social Plan identified that a high portion of Mount Druitt residents are bogans, and that they tend not to work at all. These statements are backed up by the 2006 census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It states that 46% of Mount Druitt's 13,583 residents were stoned, more than double the national average, with 10.6% just high, 3.3% sloshed and 3.2% were hammered.

Horse 1134 - East London Sesame Street

Rainy day,

Keeping the sun away

On my way,

To where the air aint sweet

Can you tell me how to get

How to get to Sesame Street?

How to get to Sesame Street?

OK, you know how it should sound but what would happen to the eponymous street if the TV show was cast not in an idealised New York City, but in a more dreary place such as East London?

For a start you can recast most of the human cast as Cockneys. Instead of having happy jobs like teachers and doctors, they could spend a great deal of time down at the Post Office collecting their dole payments on Giro Day.

Hooper's Store is now the Lamb & Flag. The Fixit-Shop becomes a Pawnbrokers, Ernie and Bert are "them dodgy geezers" and Oscar would live in a Dustbin, surrounded by empty cans of Skol and Tennants Super. No wonder he's so grouchy all of the time - so would you be if you lived amongst a pile of dustbins.

Cookie Monster is obviously some sort of heroin junkie with an attack of the munchies. No-one walks around yelling "Cookie, Cookie, Cookie, Cookie!" unless they were on something. This does however explain why there's a 10 foot pigeon and a hairy elephant living down the street though.

Grover who's had more jobs than I've had hot curries, would be recast as an Eastern European migrant without a work permit. He's had many jobs as a waiter, a pilot, doctor, elevator operator, detective etc. and the reason for this is to evade the immigration officers.

About the only character whom I'd see any improvement in though would be Don Music. He'd most likely be playing songs on his piano after doing gigs at the Hackney Empire. I can very easily see him mining the repertoire of Chas and Dave and inserting those immortal words "Have a Banana" into everything. I can even picture Bill Bailey taking the part.

Horse 1133 - This Post Stinks

Usually when I travel into the city (and out the other side) in the mornings, train carriages are filled with commuters who have freshly pressed clothes, have showered and the vast majority of them have decided to do something with regards their odours. A morning train journey is filled with its own unique set of smells.
Likewise an afternoon train journey from the other side of the city, through it and back home again, is filled with the malodourous smells of slightly disheveled people who have had a full day's work beaten out of them. Collectively the trains and buses do not smell as crisp as they did in the morning, however this is still the general smell of humanity as it goes about its business.

Over the past fortnight, I have been ungoing physiotherapy sessions following knee surgery. This has meant that I need to depart from my usual travelling times and travel in that mysterious period known as "off-peak". I have discovered that in terms of smell, this is a highly variable period indeed.

After 9am public transport generally and trains especially carry mothers and baby carriages. Suffice to say, babies themselves are a factory of random smells, producing anything from the smell of puke, to the smells of whatever they have lovingly made in their pants.
It's not just babies though, after 9am people feel as though they now have the ability to eat things exotic and ambrosial. These smells range from the sickeningly sweet, through the spices of the east and to the smells of things rotting.
You can also find a class of people who are slightly shady from about 10am. These people tend to have a habit of smelling either like stale tobacco or perhaps the new fragrance from the House of Jack Daniel's: Sour Mash Old No.7.

Trains themselves have a distinct smell. The smell of brakes on Sydney Trains is like nothing in the world. No doubt that the smell probably causes cancer, for the simple reason that everything causes cancer. Then there is the vague smell of burnt dust if you happen to be sitting in that little alcove next to the electric units directly below the pantographs.

But the scariest smell of all which can be found on public transport, are those smells floating on the breeze that you're not entirely sure of. Are they sweet? Do they smell like poo? Kebabs even? Who knows? What is certain that if you do smell them, you spend the next 25 minutes trying to work out a) what the heck they are and b) if you should be offended or not by them.

Horse 1132 - Wikileaking Everywhere & Not a Drop To Drink

Whilst the United States is baying for the blood of Julian Assange, the Wikileaks man, perhaps a little bit of perspective is in order.

Spying for want of a better term, or perhaps more generally espionage, is the obtaining of information that would otherwise be secret; can be done against an individual or an organisation, and even against a nation.

The general problem with Wikileaks is that they themselves aren't the ones doing the smuggling, but are the recipients of secret information. In some respects, Wikileaks is equivalent to someone who receives stolen goods but in this case the goods aren't tangible. Whilst it might be very easy indeed to bring charges against Wikileaks for receiving stolen information, it poses the question as to how so much information was able to be leaked in the first place. It also poses a second yet far larger issue.

If you do manage to prosecute Wikileaks for receiving stolen information and then publishing it, should you then go on and prosecute the world's media for their complicitous attitude and re-publishing it in a far more widely seen arena? It's all very well to have a symbolic villain but when that information is not only re-published across daily newspapers, magazines, television, internets and pad-pod-handheld devices; for a profit no less, what gives them the right to make money with impunity? In Australia s.153 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 refers to literary proceeds and that The commercial exploitation may be by any means, including: publishing any material in written or electronic form.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/poca2002160/s153.html
I would suggest that if Mr Assange is ever brought to trial and is convicted, then there is justifiably a huge target to go after, namely every print, broadcaster and publisher who has even made more than a cent in profit out of this.

Of course they could argue that they have a right to free speech and that it is in the public interest to know about these things. Maybe, but to hold Mr Assange guilty and the media itself guiltless would be a hideous travesty of justice.

Horse 1131a - Sometimes That Story Has a Happy Ending

Swann got 5 wickets, Pietersen's 227, Cook made 148, and Australia have had their first innings defeat since the West Indies hammered them in 1993.

To sum up - England win by:

- 1 inning

- 71 runs

- 5 wickets

- 11 players

- 1 country

- hundreds of alcoholic beverages

- a quarter of a flag

- and an entire language.

And CricInfo are too craven to acknowledge the result:
http://twitpic.com/3dm0ze

Horse 1131 - Test Cricket is a Story

As we head into Day 5 of the Second Test between Australia and England at the Adelaide Oval, England need 6 wickets to either claim victory (or to score the runs if Australia score another 137) and Australia need 137 to make England bat again. This is what makes Test Cricket more than anything else so delightfully delicious, that on Day 5, the whole thing can be all for naught if the weather dictates.
Back in Horse 241 I wrote a piece which said that Cricket is Delightfully Stupid. Test Cricket is therefore the height of this delightful stupidity.

The thing about most long distance or endurance sports of which undoubtedly Test Cricket must surely be one, is that instead of something all being over in a flash and largely a test of either strength or speed, they all are more a test of character. All long distance or endurance sports are more about the story of the event rather than a 30 second highlight reel.
The Le Mans 24 Hour Race can often result in multi-million dollarpound teams having a 15 pennycent component fail at the 22 hour mark; thus handing victory to a lesser and not as well funded team. For some teams even just making it to the end is an achievement.
Even if you don't remember the names, I think we were captivated by the struggle between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut who fought a very long and tiring 6-4 3-6 6-7 7-6 70-68 match at Wimbledon this year. We even collectively felt relief when this epic battle of wills finally came to a close.

So it is with Test Cricket. Unlike the decidedly undelightful stupidity of T-20-Twenty, and the whole One Day nonsense, a Test Match evolves and changes almost like a painting with every stroke. Pietersen's 227 is an obvious stand out in this match, but it wouldn't have even been possible without the gallant efforts of Cook, Trott, Collingwood and Bell. Anderson's thumping 4/51 with the ball in Australia's innings really sliced them to pieces but even Hussey showed some ticker and valiantly hacked away for his 93.
Katich must have wanted to crawl into a hole after being left stranded on a Diamond Duck, but his knock of 43 in the second dig still shows that sport is one of the few theatres where if you fail once, you can stage a fightback and show your colours on the nest attempt.

With clouds looming over the horizon, even Mother Nature herself can affect the outcome of a match. If this were a football match, teams might be pleased to pick up a point for their efforts, but over five days you can either see all your hard work dashed to pieces like so many discarded bits of pottery, or be saved from having your face dragged through the mud, if the weather decides to declare everyone's innings for naught.

Of course the other thing about cricket is that because it does lend itself to being broadcast on the radio, it has formed the soundtrack to many a summer in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Long may it continue!

BBC Coverage - With Aggers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live_sports_extra

ABC Coverage - Also with Aggers when he's not on the Beeb
http://www.abc.net.au/sport/

Test Match Sofa - Not with Aggers, but a right hoot.
http://www.testmatchsofa.com/

Horse 1130 - My Scorn Against FIFA

I have held the opinion for at least 10 years now that there is a very strong degree of systematic bias against the English speaking nations within FIFA.

As a result, every English speaking nation must be forced to dodgy refereeing decisions to the point where it costs them any chance of ever winning anything. If you don't believe me, let's just quickly have a review of this year's World Cup in South Africa:

- England's disallowed goal against Germany, when ALL the ball had crossed the line.

- Australia having Cahill sent off against Germany, and thus losing their only striker.

- Italy being awarded a penalty against New Zealand (when it wasn't even inside the area)

- Referee Koman Coulibaly disallowing a USA goal against Slovenia for no apparent reason at all.

- Ghana scoring against the USA in the 94th minute when there were only supposed to be 2 minutes of added time.

- Ireland being knocked out of the qualifiers against France when Thierry Henry handballed a goal.

Every English speaking nation at the 2010 tournament at critical moments was forced to suffer bad refereeing decisions. I assume that this must be some sort of unwritten FIFA policy. If there was only one or two it might be seen as unfortunate, but against all of them? Come on.

Of course there is a fairly obvious reason why FIFA would hold such a resentment. The International Football Association Board or IFAB which determines the Laws of the Game, is made up of 8 members. Four being representatives of each of the home nations (namely England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales), and four members from FIFA.
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/organisation/ip-100_04e_ifab_9481.pdf
It seems to me that because FIFA don't happen to control some aspect of the game (much like their resentment towards UEFA for having a shiny, glossy European Champions League that's worth so much money) then they feel the need to retaliate.

Now if you apply this to the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, then the results which we have seen this morning should have been fairly predictable.
On paper, the best bids should have been England and the USA. There is a minimum requirement that the host nation has 12 stadiums that can hold at least 40,000 people. England being the home of football not surprisingly has 56, and the USA which hosts American Football at both national and college level has more than 200. Russia currently has 3 and Qatar which has a total population of less than half of Sydney, only has 1 at the moment.

The fact that the 2018 and 2022 World Cups went to two nations whose bids are backed by oil money, and given that only last week there were allegations of bribery by the BBC's Panorama program, doesn't really do much to dissuade my suspicions that FIFA really are a bunch of corrupt bastards. It also makes a mockery of the banner that FIFA bring out before most international matches. It is perfectly alright for them to have a "Say No To Racism" because discrimination on the grounds of the language you speak isn't actually racism.

Actually the best thing that the USA, England and Australia could have done in their campaigns would have been to just give up before they started because they were never going to win. That truly would have been the best thing according to FIFA's own motto "For The Good Of The Game".

The final results of this morning are: Corruption and Bribery 2 - Football 0.

Horse 1129 - Why Can't We Have Nice Things?

Is it?

Something which has been bothering me for a long time, is that in just about every facet of modern life, we seem to be surrounding ourselves in ugly or boring things. If I want to go out and replace my worn out furniture, I can not seem to find anything which looks remotely nice. Things today are produced with only a short term end in mind, and as such don't appear to have the thoughts of a craftsman poured into them.
You can see this right across architecture, White Goods, Brown Goods, motor cars, music, etc. etc. etc.
It often feels like the only things that are made with their aesthetic beauty in mind anymore are someone's dinner in a high class restaurant and possibly high-end watches.

I wanna know WHY we can't have nice things?

Before the advent of photography, painters and sculptors had a different purpose for art. If they were trying to capture how someone looked, it was usually done through rose-tinted glasses because they were being commissioned by either the person who wanted their likeness painted, or they wanted one of their family or friends painted. The motivation although tied with with money was to make their subject look nice.
With the painting of landscapes, although the artist would on occasion try to invoke a sense of fear, or perhaps sorrow in their work, in general they still managed to capture the beauty of view in at least one aspect.

Even with industrial manufacture, items which were mass produced were often things of beauty. A hundred years ago, people put thought into making ironwork for railings and fleur-de-lis which often stood as a regal, political, heraldic or symbolic device, now suddenly found itself on the front fence of the houses of workers. One of my favourite subjects the motor-car, used to be styled by people who still thought about creating machines which looked beautiful. Something as humble as the Austin A30 which by all accounts was a terrible motor car mechanically and would be beaten by a Toyota Yaris, still looks asthetically nicer 50 years on. The Ford Cortina Mk1 is also a better looking and prettier car than today's Ford Focus.
Radio sets used to be massive pieces of furniture which would often adorn the parlours and sitting rooms across the land. Today we have plasma screen TV's which fulfil largely the same sorts of function, but an old radio is a warm looking thing whereas today's recto-linear TVs, MP3-Pod machines, Tablets, all somehow look cold and aloof.

I think that the same can be said for music. When an Austrian nobleman comissioned a symphony in C which defied all earthly description, the composers who crafted their pieces did so with all the care than any true artisan would.
Now it can be said that practically anyone with a decent computer and sound editing software can potentially produce music. The charts today are flooded with largely talentless individuals who can be autotuned to perfection or autotuned with weird effects. I seriously doubt whether anyone is actually trying to make beautiful music anymore.

Mankind it must be said has been endowed with all sorts of ingenuity, and an incredible drive to explore, build and create. I totally understand the need to make a dollar; I even accept the fact begrudingly that some people are hideously greedy in pursuit of that dollar, and perhaps to some degree why we often need to surround ourselves with material possessions BUT if we are going to do this, then why must we forcibly subject ourselves to ugliness?



This post from elsewhere in the blogosphere also touches on this subject:
http://everydayeverywhereeveryone.blogspot.com/2009/02/oscar-wilde-wallpaper-objects-and.html

Horse 1128 - Religion Isn't The Cause Of "Poison"... It's People

This post comes from the jumping off point of this article from the ABC's Unleased website:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/41376.html

Religion for want of a better word is a set of practices based on or that follow as a result of one's faith. To put it more simply: Faith is where and what you believe in; Religion is what you do about it.

Everyone who has ever been born on this planet has believed in something, even atheists. Athiests might not believe in god/s but they do believe in an abscence of them; by definition this is still a belief in a position. It follows that everyone who has ever lived has their own unique religion of sorts (including atheists), and although it might not necessarily be an organised religion, the fact still holds true that everyone has their own religion.
If it is true that everyone has their own religion, then for their religion to be "poisonous", this can not be the fault of the religion but of the people themselves who formally make up the religion if it is a collective one, or even the individual.

This is why I think that Mr Hodge is quite wrong is saying that:

Yet, there is no fool-proof way to define “religion” that will include such belief systems as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism while excluding nationalism, political ideologies, capitalism, pop culture, sport and more.

If there is is no fool-proof way to define “religion”, then why have I done precisely that and included EVERY possible belief system. If religion is what one does as a result of one's faith in whatever that happens to be, then it doesn't even need to make mention of buildings, organisations, or the existance of god, gods or an abscence of them.

Getting back to the point about religion being "poisonous", or rather the people who make up a collective religion being the cause of that poison, then you don't need to go to any religious institute to find evidence of this. One merely needs to open the newspaper on a daily basis to read about man's injustice to his fellow man, or even look at the headlines on the ABC's own news website:
Belanglo teen killed with axe - Fatal shooting police 'tried to warn patrons' - Police restore calm after Yuendumu violence - Vic Coalition unveils child abuse, sentencing reforms.
I cite all of these and thousands more on a daily basis as proof of mankind's internal poison. I haven't got around to even mentioning religion's part in all this because quite frankly I don't need to. The problem isn't religion but people themselves.

How is "religion" connected to this hideousness I hear you ask? Obviously if religion is what one does, then the people who killed the teen with an axe, or the perpetrators of child abuse or the people of Yuendumu, must all be following their own internal religions; however twisted and not normal they happen to be. Every individual must be held accountable for their own actions, and if religion happens to be what one does, then one's actions and one's religion must be either identical or else mesh together very well indeed.

Of course it is very easy to stand back from all of this and act "piously" for want of a better word, but if we're all following our own internal religion and we all happen to be the root cause of that "poison", then is it little wonder that society seems to progressively get worse? That violent crime increases over time?

Maybe there was some wisdom after all in "the good book" which society seemingly has laid aside because it was no longer "relevant". Collectively are our throats are open graves? Do our tongues practice deceit? What are the results of that poison anyway? Is it difficult to hear cursing and bitterness the second you step out onto the street? If you switch on the telly of a night can you find people who are swift to shed blood? When the GFC hit, were people quick to mark up ruin and misery in their moral accountbooks along with losses financial?

Maybe there was some wisdom when it was said of mankind that there was no one righteous, not even one and that there is no-one who understands; no-one who seeks God. Just what is the point of religion anyway if together we have become worthless and there really is no-one who does good?

It seems that to pinpoint religion as “poisonous”, and to identify its origins in human nature, would lead one to think there is something very defective about human beings themselves and their nature.

Isn't that the very point of Christianity anyway? That there is in fact something hideously defective about human beings themselves in their nature? Christianity itself starts with the very assumption that both collectively and individually that everyone who has ever been born on this planet is flawed, defective and utterly incapable of making peace with their creator. It assumes that everyone does carry round a poison which makes us unacceptable to our creator, and it explains very easily why mankind as a whole and people individually need a saviour from that poison.

But to suggest that it is religion's fault for poisoning society simply defies both common sense and logic. Somehow I think that Mr Hodge needs to go back have a check of his workings, and then get back to us.

Horse 1127 - Apple Gets to the Core of Music.

The two thoughts in this are connected, buy only just:

Part A:
This week Apple made an announcement which had the world's practically cooing for the scoop before anyone else got it. When I heard news of the upcoming "big announcement" my first thought was that iTunes was going to announce a something related to "the cloud" or maybe a paid subscription service.
Apple announced in May that it building a data server farm in North Carolina. Presumably it's got something to do with Apple TV, though the idea of iTunes in the Cloud has been kicking about for a while, which I guess would be like Spotify which currently operates in Europe.

If Apple was going to go down the cloud storage route for music, then in theory you could have your iCloud pod machine with only a minimal flash drive in it, and then run a micro-payments system at say 0.5 of a cent per song; the iCloud would send off some sort of request into the cloud play the song, and then delete the song from the flash drive.
I imagine that it would be a similar business model to XM Satellite Radio mashed with pay-per-view which would be essentially a pay-for-service affair rather like cable TV.

Part B:
Instead we only got the rather paltry announcement that the Beatles catalogue was finally on iTunes. Wow... really, just wow... sigh.
I think that it's a sad indictment on the current output of the record companies if almost 50 year old music is able to cause a stir. When you consider that they're whinging about falling music sales, I think it makes a pretty strong statement. What this does say is that EMI, Virgin, Warner et. al. should start producing music that lots of people actually would like to buy.

When you have bands who grind away in sheds, garages and playing small venues like pubs and RSLs, they tend to produce music that appeals to more people on average than manufactured pop idols.
Bands and musicians who have to learn their craft, tend to produce higher quality of music than technicians who in principle aren't musicians, playing with computers in a back room. This is compounded when those same people with computers can turn people who already can't sing into autotuned marvels, with an electronic drum beat.

I that you'll find generally that when rock music sits atop the music charts, that there probably a higher turnover in music sales. This might sound ridiculous, but I think that you're more likely to pack out very large stadia with a rock concert than a dance outfit.
No offense to Ke$ha (who according to the Herald, went skydiving over Sydney yesterday), but she isn't exactly going to fill the SCG in the same way that U2, The Rolling Stones, or Green Day might do. In fact it was the Beatles themselves who played the first major stadium concert in history, before a crowd of 55,600 at Shea Stadium in August 1965.

I don't think that it's actually fair to blame flagging music sales on illegal music, when for the most part with the age of the digital download, you can buy a song for $1.29. In a world where glorified no-talent shows like Pop Idol, X-Factor, spit out saccharine "singing sensations", is it little wonder that when the TV show's season ends, no-one cares anymore?

Almost 50 years after the Beatles started making music, their records are still able to cause a stir for the simple reason that they put in the effort and learnt how to be real musicians.
Image isn't everything despite what you've heard because music itself is an aural experience not a visual one. If record companies simply just shut their eyes and actually listened to the crud they're putting out, maybe they might be able to sell proper music again.

Horse 1126 - What "core partnership"?

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/howards-end--a-note-in-bushs-memoirs-20101110-17noz.html

Mr Bush mentions Mr Howard just three times in his 500-page Decision Points.

...

The only other reference is a footnote to observations the former president makes about Tony Blair, who features heavily in the Bush tome, reflecting the primacy of the US-British "special relationship".

- Sydney Morning Herald, 11 Nov, 2011

With regards yesterday's post of what Ms Clinton called the United States' "core partnership" with Australia, I wonder exactly a) what she could have meant if it was mentioned just three times in a former President's memoirs and b) just what the heck does Australia gain from this so called "core partnership"? What is in it for us?

Actually there is a fair question - What is in it for us?

Foreign policy in Australia from before federation has been to do whatever Big Brother happens to tell it to do. There is not a single example (save maybe in WW2) where Australians were fighting in a theatre remotely connected to their homeland.

Big Brother Britain sent us to South Africa, the fields of Europe twice, North Africa, and in return the Menzies government formulated a plan called the Brisbane Line to surrender northern Australia pending invasion.
Big Brother America has sent us to Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Iraq twice, Afghanistan and when Australia asked for a wee bit of help with conflicts in East Timor, we were politely told where to go and how to get there.

What I find really surprising is this photo and link:
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/images/20010910-1.html

With their hands over their hearts, President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard perform a military pass and review at the Washington Navy Yard Sept. 10, 2001. Commemorating 50 years of military alliance, the President and Prime Minister spoke to assembled military personnel, shared lunch and spoke privately in the Oval Office.

Take note of the date Sept 10, 2001. Did the memories of the day that followed completely obliterate his memories of the day before, or was Mr Howard and the "core partnership" just so umimportant that it didn't even figure?

Formally the United States, Australia and New Zealand signed the ANZUS treaty in 1951, but in 1985 when a visit of USS Buchanan was denied by New Zealand because of nuclear weapons launching capabilities that the ship had. Negotiations eventually broke down and the United States suspended its treaty obligations with New Zealand.
If the United States officially called someone whom it formally had a treaty with "a friend, but not an ally", then surely this should have been worth noticing.

The way I see it, Australia has sent troops and hardware to die on fields all over the world for the benefit of other nations and since the end of WW2 almost exclusively at the request of the United States. If a former President can't even be bothered to remember the existence of a nation's leader which he supposedly had a "core partnership" with, can it be really be said to exist at all?