New Zealand Most Desirable Country To Travel via Kiwibloke
FutureBrand has release their annual Country Brand Index, and once again New Zealand scores big including the most desirable place to visit in the world.
CBI, now in its fourth year, is a comprehensive study of approximately 2,700 international business and leisure travelers from nine countries conducted by FutureBrand, a leading global brand consultancy, in conjunction [...]...
Chris Reid is ging to Oz via Dr Roy's Thoughts
Chris Reid Wendy stewartChris Reid and I are Facebook friends. we finally met on Saturday, sadly for his going away party. Chris has found a great job in Melbourne, Australia. Canada's loss is Australia's gain. I also met another Facebook friend at the party ( which took place at Straight Night Club on Church) Wendy Stewart, who had worked on Chris's brief campaign. We had a great time discussing conservative politics. he is deciding whether to join the National Party or the Liberal Party in Oz.Chris is a staunch conservative. When the party betrayed him, he did not betray the party. I think he would have made a wonderful MP. He is a great person. He actually went on a panel sponsored by the gay paper Xtra, to defend the Tories!I wish Chris much success and...
Global warming movement: insanity rules via Werner Patels - A Dose of Common Sense
Emergency intervention - a possible lesson for Canada? via Werner Patels - A Dose of Common Sense
Troubling via Dr Roy's Thoughts
Hockey Night in Melbourne via Miss604's Canuck Life :: A Vancouver Blog
I’ve been lucky enough to participate in a podcast for Canucks fans and by Canucks fans for the last year or so. Through the magic of the internets all 5 of us co-hosts are able to link up now and then to talk about our team, the game, the league and rant about various topics. We’ve connected with hockey fans all over the world and I know that one of our most loyal listeners is over in China, but when I received and email from Mark I was pretty floored.
Mark lives in Australia and has a website, Hockey Night in Melbourne, dedicated to a gathering of hockey fans all over the area who get together to watch NHL hockey games.
The hockey night in Melbourne thing came about because I was really frustrated how hard it was to watch a Canucks game in Australia (it’s hard to... Canada and Australia via The Alberta Globe
Jeffrey Simpson observes in his column today that Canada and Australia should have a closer relationship. He notes that no two other countries are as similar as these two Commonwealth members.
We really do have a lot of things in common, and it's a shame that, geographically, we're not closer.
There's a lot we can learn from each other, such as the fact that Australia's senate is elected and doesn't consist of laggards and butt-kissers who are appointed for licking the boots of certain prime ministers (such as one former CTV correspondent who slanted his reports in favour of Jean Chrétien and the Liberal Party and got a cushy Senate job in return, despite being utterly incompetent).
Personally, I'd love to see more exchange even in the world of television. Until a few years ago, some...
Canada and Australia:Family via Dr Roy's Thoughts
Must See TV via The Commentator
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlzDHY9CRB8This comes courtesy of fellow Blogcritics contributor Stan Denham. I really should pay more attention to what goes on in Australia-land. I wish someone would do the same on those stupid awards ceremony that are so utterly irritating. Like to Oscars for instance. Wouldn't it have made for legendary TV had Martin Scorsese body-checked someone like that on stage?Aw what the hell. Here's the article. I think North American (and Canadian in particular. Are John Howard and Jean Chretien related?) political junkies may enjoy this....
Wages up ,unemployment down via Dr Roy's Thoughts
Good for HM Royal Australian Navy via Dr Roy's Thoughts
I am disappointed that HM British Royal navy did not learn from the experience of HM Australian Royal Navy. Bullies must be faced down. Instead the Brits allowed the iranian bullies to humiliate them.Iran 'unable to take Australians'By Frank Gardner BBC News security correspondentThe Australians have also been patrolling northern Gulf watersIranian naval forces in the Gulf tried to capture an Australian Navy boarding team but were vigorously repelled, the BBC has learned.The incident took place before Iran successfully seized 15 British sailors and Marines in March.The lessons from the earlier attempt do not appear to have been applied in time by British maritime patrols.The 15 Britons were searching a cargo boat in the Gulf when they were captured over a boundary dispute.'Having none of...
Scotland’s Place in Western Culture via The Commentator
Some time ago I watched a Scottish film called Trainspotting. It was an interesting movie but one line in particular stuck with me for some reason. One in which that described Scotland as the black sheep of Europe. Of course, in the Irish film The Commitments, one of the characters said the same thing except they replaced Scotland with Ireland.All this reminds me of a Saturday Night Live sketch with Michael Myers playing the role of an abrasive Scottish nationalist screaming, “if it’s not Scottish, it’s crap.” And then there’s Grounds keeper Willy.I digress.Pound for pound the enchanting nations of Scotland and Ireland have made significant contributions to modern Western culture. To anyone who is reasonably well-read that much is obvious. Take this post as a refresher.When I...
Home Town(s) Rule! via ongoing
The BBC
reports that the
Economist Intelligence Unit reports that the two best places in the world to
live are Vancouver and Melbourne. The accompanying picture, featuring former
Prime Minister Paul Martin, who’s from Québec, with a dorky-looking Mountie,
is pretty lame. But still, thereby
hangs a tale.
When I met
Lauren, she was living in
Germany. Eventually I started trying to persuade her to move to Vancouver.
She was tired of Germany but, as a New Zealander whose happiest years had been
in Melbourne, she was hankering for Down Under.
Eventually, we came to agreement and she moved to Vancouver, which has made
me very happy. But the agreement has a fallback clause: if we ever move from
Vancouver, it has to be to Melbourne.
Do those Economist dudes have good taste, or......
An apology is owed… via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
This is an absolutely fantastic quote and a great quote for any progressive person who wants to throw something back at liberals when they turn their noses up at us.
“When capital and the ruling classes apologise for: Colonialism, the 14 hour day, class privilege, the 7 day working week, children in coalmines, the opium wars, the massacre of the Paris Commune, slavery, the Spanish-American War, the Boer War, starvation, apartheid, anti-union laws, the First World War, Flanders, trench warfare, mustard gas, aerial bombing, the Soviet Intervention, the Armenian Genocide, chemical weapons, fascism, the Great Depression, hunger marches, Nazism, the Spanish Civil War, militarism, Asbestosis, radiation death, the Massacre of Nanking, the Second World War, Belsen, Dresden, Hiroshima,...
Australia tries to help change the horror of Zimbabwe via Dr Roy's Thoughts
HM Australian Government , like the United states is funneling money to the Zimbabwean opposition. Mugabe is a monster that is starving his own people to death. He and his Zanu PF must be defeated. I commend Hm Australian Government on their actions against this rogue regime. Unlike Zimbabwe's african neighbours who are Mugabe's collaborators in his crimes.Australia 'funds Zimbabwe terror' Mr Howard accused Robert Mugabe of being a "grubby dictator"Zimbabwe's government has accused Australia of funding violence in an attempt to remove President Robert Mugabe from power.In an interview, Zimbabwe's Information Minister Sikyaniso Ndlovu said Canberra was financing "terrorist activities" by channelling money to aid groups.Australia is a vocal critic of Mr Mugabe and announced it was...
Some Australian Muslim Clerics muzzled by other Muslims via Dr Roy's Thoughts
One of the offensive Clerics:Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali Some Australian Muslim clerics are now banned from talking to the media. Yet it doesn't seem they will be stopped from spreading their nonsense to vulnerable youth in their congregations. That seems to me like that should be a step taken right away, not if they don't comply with the media ban. Perhaps these clerics need sensitivity and civics courses. At least some Muslims are beginning to see the problem, yet they are not doing enough to solve it.Australian clerics 'in media ban'Five senior Australian Islamic clerics are reported to have been banned from talking to the media by Muslim leaders.The clerics have been accused of conveying "un-Australian" messages.The ban was issued by the Lebanese Muslim Association, which is...
Things About Australia via ongoing
Well, we’re home. For a six-day stretch I didn’t touch a computer once.
Lauren and I regularly talk about moving to Australia (she’s lived there), so
when we visit we always have our eyes and ears open. Here are some observations
whose only unifying theme is a few summer days in Victoria, Australia.
Diminutives
Australians share with the Swiss a love of diminutives; for example, most
obviously, “Aussie”. Tasmania is “Tassie”, driving directions are full of
“righties” and “lefties”, mosquitoes are “mozzies”, beer bottles are “stubbies”, and
so on. One time we were driving in the country and Sally said “lots of
kangaroos around here” and I said it would be nice to see one in the wild; she
replied “Probably not, but we might see a deadie.”
Flies
The...
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
Red seaweed on a beach in Cape Conran park.
This is a park in Victoria quite a way east of Melbourne, famous for
beaches and rocks. The beaches have too much seaweed in parts, mostly red
like this, the tide throws it up in huge stinking heaps where the angle of the
land is right. Pretty in the small,......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
Two large-scale shots of the beach at Frenches Narrows at Cape Conran park,
with people fishing into the surf.
This beach is huge (I’m not sure whether it’s officially part of Gippsland’s
“Ninety Mile Beach”) and there are parts of it you can swim on, but this
isn’t one of them; the water was brutally cold this day, the waves
nasty-looking, and the locals muttered about sharks.
The idea of fishing out into the surf would never occur to me, but I saw
others doing it too. I asked this fellow how he was doing and he said
“nothing today”.
[Yes, that’s how they spell the name, Frenches Narrows, no apostrophe or......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
The sun on suburban shops on a quiet morning.
I gather that there do exist distant residential developments here where you
have to drive to shop, but everyone I know in Australia is within walking
distance of shops. This set includes a
newsagent, a grocery/liquor store, a doctor, a podiatrist, a hairdresser, a pharmacy,
an alternative-health practitioner, and a junk buy-&-sell.
The shops are basic but they seem to
be making a go of it; we’ve been coming to this neighborhood for years and the
line-up hasn’t changed much. A few years back when I got a nasty case of
swimmer’s ear, the local doctor fixed me up on short notice at a reasonable price.
Note how all shops in Australia come with awnings, set up so that you can
stroll along and be out of the rain or sun. It escapes me why...
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
A red ventilation fitting against blue and white sky.
And with that, I’m off deep into the country to camp on a remote beach.
Will be back in that other hemisphere and on the net sometime around the 21st.
Take......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
A farm scene in Gippsland, with eucalypts and drought colours.
Gippsland is a great big chunk of Victoria, the parts I’ve seen have been
farmland and beaches. There are usually a few eucalypts left standing here and
there in their fields; since farmers tend to be an unsentimental and
not-very-green lot, I assume there’s a reason for this other than their
looking wonderful.
See the colour? Gippsland is pretty brown this year, and much of it has
been burning, one of the worst fire years on record. But in this picture, it’s
a grey sky behind the......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
Skyscapes with eucalypts; one, in a sense, firelit.
That second shot is early morning, before seven, and that red colour is
haze from the great Victorian bush-fires of the summer of 2006/07.
Some days you could smell the smoke. You could tell this was going to be a
hot one; a few days in Australia and you develop major respect for the people
who go and fight those fires in that......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
Minimal beach landscape: grass, sky, gull.
Gulls are such moronic, horrid creatures; but beautiful still.
One of these years I’ll figure out a way to live at a beachfront,......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
The last of the beach pictures: weathered rocks at Cape Conran.
If you take off from the right end of the beach (facing sea-ward) there’s a
nice boardwalk put up by the local Aboriginal band with write-ups on the
landscape and wildlife and people. There are a lot of shellfish here that
people ate (still eat?), what I like about them is that they weather away into
interesting flowerlike shapes. The water’s beautiful, the shells are
beautiful, but I liked these rocks too.
I moronically left the camera set at ISO 800 for a whole day and thus got a
bunch of fairly-grainy shots; but in this case I like the effect. The sky was
indeed......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
This is the trunk of a paper-bark eucalypt.
[And with this, I'm off to a remote beach; back on the air from the
other hemisphere round about the 21st. Take care, everyone.]
These eucalyptus trees are one of Australia’s distinctive visual
signatures; they come in all shapes and sizes; the biggest are forest giants
on the scale we’re used to in the Pacific Northwest.
They were imported to California and have done well there, albeit
surprising people with their propensities to explode in a bush-fire
and to drop branches in a drought. Still, they’re fine things and good......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
This is another flower from Sally’s garden, an agapanthus.
Both Vancouver and Melbourne are gardener-friendly, you
can grow most things, but the constraints are different. There’s no frost here
and never a shortage of sun; but water is often an issue, and the plants have
to be able to live with occasional dry spikes up over 40°C. The result is
that gardens look really different; but roses feature prominently in both......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
Herewith two pictures of
CSIRAC, claimed to be the
fourth digital computer ever built, and the oldest still in existence.
768 20-bit words, 1000Hz, lots and lots and lots of vacuum......
Aussie Snaps via ongoing
We took the kids to Melbourne Zoo, which is OK if in parts too
old-fashioned (but the Australian-animals section is fine). I find zoo
animals kind of depressing so I usually don’t take pictures. But there was an
attractive red-headed black duck swimming in murky water with its baby
chicks—a volunteer I think, not a zoo animal—and they were too cute to resist.
Are zoos ethical? I think on balance yes, my revulsion is aesthetic not......