Yeah, I watched it...

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We watched the Royal Wedding.

Champagne, Crown Roast, vegetables and Queen of Puddings. That made it worth it.

You cannot beat the British for pageantry. And that was worth it too.

But the service touched no chords - as an atheist, it made no sense at all.

And The Age, dumb as ever, had a headline this morning "And now the fairytale begins!".

Didn't anyone tell them that fairytales end when the prince marries the princess?
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And they want me to pay for web access!

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You will have picked up on my absolute dismay at the moronic articles written in the media nowadays.

The above picture came with the heading:

"Teen's 'Solar Death Ray' can melt concrete".

This is just a bigger version of small boys tormenting ants with a magnifying glass.

Yes, if you use 5800 small mirrors to focus the sun, you will get a pretty hot spot at the focal point. But not a ray, as we know it Toto.

Here is a bigger version, build in France in 1970:



And here's a cute little cooker that you can take on your next camp:


It they expect me to pay for news on line, they will have to research things a little better than just calling a parabolic mirror a 'death-ray'.
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Cop that!

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A clip from The Age on-line. Had police attacked an elderly woman?

No, but, at a casual glace, you would be forgiven for thinking so.

But the Age is becoming tabloid; we know that. They offered me a deal today "Upgrade your subscription and receive access to the new digital edition wherever you are, 24 hours a day." Well, if this is an example of their on-line journalism, I am not enticed by the offer.

But what is our beloved Australian Broadcasting Corporation, bastion of fine journalism, doing with the same story?


Pigs! As in pig's bum.
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Oh, come on...

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I'm sure athletes are not driven by a desire to nibble their trophies but the media (you know how much I love them) seems to love having the winners nibbling their medals, cups, plates and sundry polished awardware.

What message are they sending?

That they think the trophy is not genuine? That they distrust the organisers?

Bah!
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Attack dogs. Their owner's name is Rupert.

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There have been a number of interesting stories in the media of late.

1. The mad pastor in the US and his Koran burning nonsense. How does a small town pastor from Florida, with only 30 people in his congregation, get to be known to a food chemist in Melbourne, Australia? And why?

2. The imminent stoning death of an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Moral outrage is high but we hear little about the people due to be put to death in America. Read more. Is state sponsored murder sweeter and more angelic in the home of the free?

3. The Australian Newspaper came out last week and said, in their Editorial, that "Greens leader Bob Brown has accused The Australian of trying to wreck the alliance between the Greens and Labor. We wear Senator Brown's criticism with pride." They no longer deserve the designation of newspaper and now can be seen for what they are, a lobby group who prints propaganda.

Remember folks:

Whenever you read or see something in the media,
you are only getting what someone else
has decided that they want you to see.

And, yes, that goes for this blog too.
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Good news is bad news?

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The disappointment of the local media, that we had had a 'Code Red' fire alert day and yet there were no newsworthy fires, was palpable.

Poor darlings.

They will have to go back to beating up stories of politician's dog's infidelities for another day.
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Like most news services, gone to the birds.

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Well, I'm not surprised really. I have argued that the news services, especially the commercial channels, have gone to the birds of recent times.

Channel Nine just took it to extremes.

Apparently they have a camera on a roof top that gives a backdrop of the Melbourne skyline during the news. A local seagull has decided that the camera nook is a nice place to rest.

Full marks to the newsreader as he kept his composure while reading a fairly solemn news item, even though he could see the image on the monitors.
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Smite smote smitten

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Above is a headline on The Age website this morning.

Didn't seem right, somehow. Smitten to me is all puppy-love, doe-eyed and gooey.

I obviously wasn't the only one to point this out to The Age because, later in the day, it changed:



At least now it makes sense.
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Do they read what they write?

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So this a "one-in-100-year" flood that rivals a flood 13 years ago. Is that correct?
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Undermining their Environment Policy?

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Subsiding the construction? I suspect not.

From the ABC website.

Huh?

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An Australian gambler who lost millions in a A$1.4 billion (548.5 million pounds) gaming spree is suing one of the country’s largest casinos, claiming he was targeted by managers despite a known gambling addiction.

- Reuters.

My question is: How did a 'known gambler' accumulate A$1.4 billion??
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Better call Joe the plumber...

A bit of toilet humour recently. Apparently a French man dropped his mobile (cell) phone into the toilet on one of the fast, intercity TGV trains.

These toilets work like airline toilets and use a vacuum system to empty. In attempting to retrieve his phone the French man found his arm sucked down into the system (cistern?) and had to call for help. Presumably not with a mobile phone.

All attempts to extricate the poor man failed so he had the indignity of being stretchered off the train with the toilet still attached to his arm.

The reports are silent on whether he got his phone back.
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I'm angry! Now, um, remind me why again...

From a Wiley cartoon, The Age, 21/10/2008

The media gives me the irrits at times (only at times?); I am talking mainstream media here. They have to make things 'issues'.

A case in point: last week a nursing home was shut down because it had failed a Government audit. The media was howling lamentations and was full of clips of distressed residents and irate relatives. Woe! Woe! Woe! How could the Government do such a horrid thing?

I have no doubt that if some calamity (fire, death, pestilence) had befallen the nursing home, the same media would have been up in arms because nothing had been done. I can see their reaction in my mind: Woe! Woe! Woe! How could the Government have permitted such a horrid thing?

It is all so fake.

One small pleasure I used to have when driving home from work was listening to cub reporters trying to get compromising comments from seasoned politicians and diplomats with leading questions like "You must be angry about so and so...". The politicians weaved their way around the questions with most delicate verbal ballet. "Well, no, I am not angry. However I would like to say that..."

Sadder were the 'normal' people who got interviewed by the same cubs. Unprepared for the implanting of an emotion, they usually took the bait and told the reporter how angry they were. Even if they weren't really angry beforehand.

"Yes! I'm angry! Now, um, remind me why again..."
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Press-ganged.

I am no supporter of John McCain but I had to feel sorry for him when the local paper printed the above photo of him this morning.

It is of the same ilk as those knicker-snaps (or worse) of celebrities getting out of their cars; things that are not even of a long enough duration to be deemed fleeting are caught by the high speed cameras and then frozen in time.

I saw the incident and in real time it just looked like a very human reaction. He had started to leave the stage the wrong way, expressed an 'oops!', corrected himself and headed off in the right direction.

So?
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