An Exclusive Scoop - Loch Ness Monster Sealed in Sydney

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It is as rare as seeing the Loch Ness monster, but a seal has been sighted in the Cooks River and on Saturday at McKenzie Beach next the glamorous Tammarama beach. We are seeing more and more seals in and around Sydney’s Harbour, bays and tributaries and so we can expect to see more of this as their populations increase Cool Seal seen swimming in Cold River ; You might have thought it was too cold for a snooze on the beach this morning, but this little dude, or dudette, begged to differ. Several Gerringong residents embarking on an early morning walk along Werri Beach got a big surprise when they discovered a seal, believed to be a sub-Antarctic fur seal, occupying a patch of sand. A rare sighting of a fur seal frolicking in sand

The Bondi To Bronte Beach Coastal Walk is one of the most beautiful walks in the world - and it's right on your doorstep here in Sydney! On Saturday anyone walking past Mekenzie Beach stopped to eyeball one cool fur seal hugging the rocks ;-)

PS After a good swim at the iceberg on Saturday - temperature was 19 degree seeing a seal and reading the Guardian on a sunny morning odd sense of existentialism was in the air:

When Sam Frears was born, he was expected to reach five. His 40th birthday was the best night of his life Sam Frears walks into the Trojka Russian Tea Rooms in Regent's Park Road, north London, on the arm of my friend, who has recently introduced us. This morning we're having breakfast together for the first time. Sam is 40 years old, but looks younger. His hair is thick brown, his face reminiscent of black-and-white photos from the 1970s. One eye seems partially closed behind his dark-rimmed glasses. Sam Frears, son of the film director Stephen Frears and literary editor Mary-Kay Wilmers, has the rare degenerative condition familial dysautonomia

"Well, well, old men must die, or the world would grow mouldy, would only breed the past again."
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Becket

Battleground of Ideas - Parliamentary Legend Has It

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What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.
-George Bernard Shaw, John Bull's Other Island

Labor's general-secretary, Sam Dastyari has claimed that on the eve of former premier Nathan Rees being dumped in favour of Kristina Keneally, Mr Torbay called him into his office. Mr Dastyari claims that the 51-year-old, who was parliamentary speaker at the time, pulled out $200 from his wallet and said he would join the party if he was given the job of premier, Fairfax newspapers reported on Sunday Torbay says Labor man's claims false ; Richard Torbay and his coat of many political colours

A truly diabolical craziness in NSW politics Keneally may pass ball to Botany Bay Mayor Ron Hoenig

I n a scene littered with MPs who have entered into polygamous political arrangements throughout their careers, the intrigue is astounding.

KRISTINA KENEALLY'S decision to quit politics has renewed tensions with her colleague Nathan Rees, who has described as ''fiction'' a claim that he apologised for labelling her a puppet of Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid. Ms Keneally, who as NSW premier led Labor to a historic defeat at last year's election, has announced she will leave politics to become chief executive of Basketball Australia. In an interview published yesterday, she was asked about Mr Rees's statement during her challenge for the leadership in 2009 that whoever replaced him as premier would be a ''puppet'' of the then Labor powerbrokers Mr Tripodi and Mr Obeid. Ms Keneally told her interviewer: ''Nathan has apologised, but in the end it is laughable and it has been utterly dispelled.'' But Mr Rees, who has wished Ms Keneally well in her new career, yesterday denied ever apologising for his comment. ''I note Kristina Keneally is reported today as saying I apologised for the 'puppet' remark. That is a fiction,'' Mr Rees said. In the lead up to the 2011 election, Mr Rees did a sudden about-face and publicly declared his support for Ms Keneally, but stopped short of recanting his ''puppet'' comment.

• Rees stays firm on puppetry remark ; Swimmer Robertson wishes well Basketball player [Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally insists she doesn't feel any sadness about leaving politics. Keneally isn't sentimental about quitting ; THE US-born MP made history in late 2009 when she became the state's first female premier. Kristina Keneally's anger over being called Kim Kardashian ]

• · Obeid ; MEMBERS of the Obeid family, including the former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid, expressed interest in buying a Denman farm nearly three years before an Obeid family friend and financial adviser was granted a coal exploration licence over the property • · · A FRIEND and financial adviser to Eddie Obeid and his family, who had no mining background and a $1 company, won a coal exploration licence worth millions of dollars in a controversial tender run by the disgraced former resources minister Ian Macdonald ; In 2003, Mr Obeid's family acquired the three cafes from his former associate and Labor party donor Tony Imad for $2.4 million. But, on paper, the leaseholder was Mr Obeid's brother-in-law John Abood

• · · · Google ; Obeid told to pay $12m debt within seven days ; A Former IRS agent has been given a three year prison sentence for his part in an investment scheme that conned victims of More than $8 million

• · · · · Ex-Labour leader says he spends 'a fortune' on lawyers and accountants to make sure his business affairs are within the law Tony Blair insists that he does not avoid paying tax ; Barber: “Some people would say, ‘He loved power; he was right on top of the world for 10 years, and now he wants to be top of the world in business; he’s very competitive, Blair: “That is not true! That really is a lie; whoever is telling you that is lying. That is not true. Get me my lawyer! Get my expensive American lawyer.”
Barber: “So are you prepared to go on the record and say that you are prepared to pass to people so that they can score goals?” Blair: “I certainly am, partly because I was never very good at scoring them myself.”
Barber: “But you are very competitive.” Blair: “Look, I am very competitive.” Barber: “And you like making a lot of money … ” Blair (exasperated): “This notion that I want to be a billionaire with a yacht; I don’t! I am never going to be part of the super-rich. I have no interest in that at all.” Tony Blair: an exclusive interview

• · · · · · The twenty-first century is hectic. We live our lives at break-neck speed. We make snap judgements and decisions, which often harm us more than they help. Partnoy makes mincemeat of the idea of “thin slicing” – the art of making snap decisions based on very little information – that was made so popular by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink. He gives the delightful example of the international dating network It’s Just Lunch, which became successful by forcing its clients not to make bad snap decisions. Thus, it refuses to let them see photographs of possible partners and instead makes them eat lunch, a meal taking just the right amount of time for two people to work out if they want to see each other again. Nowhere in Wait is there anything as useful or liberating as something my economics tutor at university once told me: the more difficult a decision is to make – ie the more equally the pros and cons are stacked – the less it matters what you decide Therefore we should not wait. We should cut the dithering and get on with it. ; Legend has it that, during the Sydney Olympics, Bob Carr was caught reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment at the beach volleyball finals.

Work is a necessity for man. Man invented the alarm-clock. -Pablo Picasso (quoted by Janet Flanner in The New Yorker, Dec. 9, 1939)

Sikh of Sikhs - Soldier Saint

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Michael Daley: I wish to honour a wonderful man who lives in my electorate, Bawa Singh Jagdev. On Australia Day this year Bawa became the first ever Sikh Australian to have bestowed a Medal of the Order of Australia, an OAM. Bawa is a terrific fellow. He arrived with his wife in Sydney in 1975 after leaving his home in Nairobi, Kenya. He has had a very interesting life. He is an academic. He was born in the Punjab and was educated in the United Kingdom. He worked in Africa and finally settled in Australia. He has taught in schools and colleges in various countries. Bawa Singh Jagdev was born in a small village called Lohara in the Jalandhar district of the Punjab. He earned his professional qualifications at the Punjab University and emigrated to Kenya in 1959. He was further educated at the University of Exeter and returned to Kenya, only to find an inclement political situation.

Bawa and his wife, Gudiya, and their two children, Pradeep and Malvinder, moved to Sydney and adopted Australia as their new home. In 1975 there were not many Sikh people in Australia and Australians were not as enlightened then as we are now. Unfortunately, some people in Australia's population did not make this family feel as welcome as they should, and certainly not as welcome in this country as they are now. Sikhs are terrific people. They are full of fun and have attributes that we all admire and respect, such as love of family, having a good time and respect for elders. Bawa set about making life better for Sikhs and he helped to establish an umbrella body for Sikhs in Australia. At one time Bawa was the secretary of the Sikh Council of Australia and he is now the President of the Sikh Association of Australia.

Last Saturday night I joined with a former Premier and member for Toongabbie, Nathan Rees, the Hon. Shaoquett Moselmane, MLC, and the Hon. Peter Primrose, MLC, at a wonderful dinner attended by approximately 330 people in Lidcombe. The dinner was organised by Bawa's daughter, Malvinder, and his son, Pradeep, to honour Bawa.

It was a terrific night. I spoke on that night about the night in 1995 that I knocked on his door to ask for his support. He shook my hand, gave me his support then and is still with me. He is a man for all seasons and for all times because he carries the best gifts his God has given him. He is a strong man who is very gentle—a soldier saint. He would have been a ferocious warrior in times gone by but now finds he is just as effective, thankfully for us all, using more peaceful means. He is the most loyal of friends, a dignified and supporting husband and a giving father. Most importantly, I think he is a staunch example for younger people in a world of mixed messages. Sikh of Sikhs – a staunch example ; The ten gurus of the Sikhs stressed the importance of family life and spiritual living by example ; A soldier saint ; Melting Pot

Double Digits 1 and 0 for Media Dragon in MMXII AD

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A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so watch your step …

It is hard to believe that in June 2012 (MMXII AD) the Media Dragon turned Ten (10) a decade aka X It's also not difficult to argue that blogging has done more to spread knowledge and ideas than any other publishing innovation since the printing press. Here's the time warp sandwitched between 4200 posts which Media Dragon put out there. It is all about picking bohemian culture's collective brain for bright ideas across art, media, technology, politics, science, sustainability, music and more: X - Stay-ay-ay just a little bit longer

There is an old Slavic Yakcm saying – ‘Don’t approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side.’ Fools are plentiful around the world.

Oscar Wilde famously once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” LiteraryMinded was five in May

Be Fearless even at times of Controversial Confrontations Danger Room @ Media Dragon – Too Good To Be True

Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about the aftermath of cold war partying, and then some The past ten years have brought us many, many memories, some joy and some heartache, the move from Brissie back to Sydney. Everything that we have been through has caused us to grow into who we are today and I would not change anything … a difficult, middle-aged break up. My world was shattered, but not all was lost. You see, we can honestly say we are grateful for this experience as life has a way of surprising us with amazing grace and blessings ;-)

It is a curious aspect of human existence that tribes of people reserve their greatest hatred not for a truly foreign foe, living a great distance away. No – the nastiest contests are with your immediate neighbour, the bully at school or at work you really detest. You are likely to experience more of that in a big company than a smaller, founder-owned one. So one compelling reason why entrepreneurs win is that they are more efficient, wasting less energy on office politics. Like Kevin, we are big believers that having the focus to see beyond your fears can instigate change. When you take risks, embrace the unknown, and 'go for it', that is often when you get the breakthrough you've been looking for. Laugh at the theatre of the absurd performed by the truly rich and mad ;-) In a sane and truly fair-and-balanced, no-spin world, apologies combined with admissions of idiocy by Gina Rinehart would be a nickel a dozen. But, media-wise, we've got what we've got. A world in which Kerry Stokes’ son Ryan becomes in charge of the national library ...

Knowledge itself … turns out to be not only the source of the highest-quality power, but also the most important ingredient of force and wealth. Put differently, knowledge has gone from being an adjunct of money power and muscle power, to being their very essence. It is, in fact, the ultimate amplifier. This is the key to the powershift that lies ahead, and it explains why the battle for control of knowledge and the means of communication is heating up all over the world.

• Media Dragon is obsessed with Trivia - A mixture of news, analysis, rumour and links This blogger's mantra: Try eveything, even oysters at the Oyster Bar‎ ; Instances of instability are hard to predict, and carry with them the risk of becoming a self-fullfilling prophecy. However, the general characteristics described above and the indicators given at the end of this report can provide analysts with a better understanding of civil unrest and a solid framework through which the risk of instability can be incorporated into risk rating models Why people rebel: Analyzing the risk of political instability [ At the Huffington Post, Jason Linkins focuses like a laserbeam on the really important story; This is not HiaisPPPPenis]

• · This was the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. “The censors were in full whack-a-mole mode Blacking Out 180,000 Candles; sparks - alchemy of ideas

• · · The "big picture" blog showcases the best in visual storytelling from events around the world and has had more than 10 million page views. The most popular post? "Japan marks 6 months since earthquake, tsunami." Sacbee celebrates 4th anniversary of The Frame photo blog； It’s a global village out there. Whether in New York or Mumbai, London or Bangkok, people are being exposed to the same news, music, movies, and products regardless of geography. Our increasingly globalize culture has sparked a counter change in behavior - people are choosing local, unique experiences over the Hiltons and Big Macs They shop at street markets, enjoy food at local restaurants and stay at independently run hotels. Staying With Local Media Dragons ; There's something about the future that makes people shudder. It's daunting, unpredictable and coming at us at warp speed. art beat

• · · · The slow motion train wreck that is the Euro is grinding relentlessly on. Commentators are smugly, if not gleefully, announcing the currency’s imminent demise, enjoying their triumphant occupancy of the moral high ground; Yet Bachelorette falls in love in Prague

• · · · · Ever wonder what sorrow tastes like? How about happiness, anger or even a sneeze? The people at Hoxton Street Monster Supplies of London have created a unique range of seasoning salts collected from none other than human tears. Each of the five salts have a distinctly different flavour... The Taste of Media Dragon Emotions; Language is a labyrinth of paths. You approach from one side and know your way about; you approach the same place from another side and no longer know your way about. In the actual use of expressions we make detours, we go by side-roads. We see the straight highway before us, but of course we cannot use it, because it is permanently closed. More speeches than you can imagine are doomed to fail by bad introductions...Instead of kindling fires of enthusiasm within the audience, the introductions lead to an epidemic outbreak of brain freeze.

Drowning in Memoirs

If   we could learn everything we needed to know about writing fiction by seeing it masterfully executed, we could just stay in bed and read Chekhov. 

  Politics and war, science and sports, memoir and biography — there's a great big world of nonfiction books out there just waiting to be read. We picked the 100 best and most influential written in English since 1923, the beginning of TIME ... magazine.  Notorious

Notes of a Native Son -  Noticeably missing from the pages of Cheney’s memoir are references to books examining the big issues of our day — issues of crucial importance during his tenure with the Bush administration. From his memoir, it is impossible to know if he took any counsel at all from the estimable books of the past decade on national security, terrorism, torture, Islam, domestic surveillance. He remains opaque to the end -  That night, like every night, I stand on the balcony and stare at where the forest shadows were deepest, where the wild things were. Where Devlin could be standing. I feel the house sliding into blackness and I look out and wonder, If you can’t see me, am I invisible?   Swimming in a Cold Sea with Ann Patchett   Drowing in a Cold Sea with Jozef  

"Of all animals, authors are the vainest. No eulogies of their works can be too gross or too often repeated."

Aaron Burr (quoted in James Parton, The Life and Times of Aaron Burr)

How Much Are You Worth to Facebook?

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A great library always remind me of the stratifications of a coal mine - full of fossils, tracks and stories. It's the herbarium of feelings and passions, the jar in which the dried-up fragments of all human societies are stored..。 ..a library is not necessarily made up of books that we've read, or even that we will eventually read. They should be books that we can read. Or that we may read. Even if we never do.' -So, The Name of the Rose...tell me.

Czech (or sikh) out this online tool to calculate your worth to Facebook: at today's market price, I am supposedly worth $1,537 to Facebook ($1,876 if I start playing Zynga games). As the saying goes, If you're not paying for something, then you're not the customer—you're the product being sold. Facebook IPO, Your Brain and its Data Are Worth $91.44 to Mark Zuckerberg:
Now that the dust has settled and Facebook has traded on NASDAQ for a day, it’s possible to gauge more precisely than ever before how much the company is worth, and with that number, how much of its value derives from its relationship with each of the 900 million people who visit the site on a regular basis, gaze at and click on its ads, and feed its databases with some of their most private bits of informationm How Much Are You Worth to Facebook?

Working the network A manager's guide for using twitter in government

Government organizations that have not yet established a Twitter account can use this guide to learn the steps that they need to take to get up and running.

For more advanced users, this guide offers advice on how to reap greater benefits from Twitter—including how to use it for analytics and how to take the next step and use the data to increase the scope of an organization’s Twitter network.

• Picture tells a thousand stories ; The first map of the Australian ‘Twittersphere’ has been generated by researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI). With as many as two million Australians now using Twitter to exchange news, views and information, the internet phenomenon has become a focal element in the nation’s social discourse Twittersphere ; [Government needs people who can approach problems in new and innovative ways and anticipate future possibilities Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American PeopleStrategy - The Digital Government Strategy complements several initiatives aimed at building a 21st century government that works better Through IT Reform ; Federal Shared Services Strategy ]

• · Legislative History Research: A Basic Guide "This report provides an overview of federal legislative history research, the legislative process, and where to find congressional documents. The report also summarizes some of the reasons researchers are interested in legislative history, briefly describes the actions a piece of legislation might undergo during the legislative process, and provides a list of easily accessible print and electronic resources." ; We've recently been experimenting with a new modern look for Scholar search results. Many of you have already tried the new look and have offered valuable suggestions, which we've done our best to incorporate. Google Scholar Blog

• · · impartial public administration and management performance at risk This article examines the phenomenon of increased political pressures on governments in four Westminster systems (Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand) derived from changes in mass media and communications, increased transparency, expanded audit, increased competition in the political marketplace, and political polarization in the electorate. These pressures raise the risk to impartial public administration and management performance to the extent that governments integrate governance and campaigning, allow political staff to be a separate force in governance, politicize top public service posts, and expect public servants to be promiscuously partisan New political governance in westminster systems; 'Organised crime is an insidious presence in Australia. It costs our economy over $15 billion a yea a major crackdown on organised ; From Fingerprints to DNA: Biometric Data Collection in U.S. Immigrant Communities and Beyond

• · · · This blog is own by old lady name Adza Irdawati or I call myself as \\\"Mak Dara\\\" to make things worst im FAT!!!! now tell me the truth who really wants to reads a blog from an old and triple XL la . ；-） The worst blog Twelfth Annual Weblog Awards: The 2012 Bloggies ; Styles ; Media Dragons

• · · · · One in five Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) staff had experienced bullying. Australia's Parliament House has a "toxic" culture in which staff are regularly bullied and cronyism is common, an inquiry has heard. ; The New Bullying - News, Resources, Legislation and Updates from Michigan Journalism Project Follow up to previous postings on bullying, see The New Bullying: "This project on bullying was launched by an advanced journalism class at Michigan State University in January, 2012, the month after Michigan passed anti-bullying legislation. The class is developing this website and a book ; The New Bullying

• · · · · · An employee of HM Revenue and Customs was arrested today by detectives investigating corrupt payments to public officials The 50-year-old man was held on suspicion of misconduct in a public office by officers from Operation Elveden. Scotland Yard said a 43-year-old woman was also arrested at the address in north west London. HMRC man arrested in corrupt payments probe ; Here are five common mistakes made by email managers, and how to avoid them by developing and implementing your own action plan How to avoid 5 common email management mistakes

World here we come

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To win in the Age of Now you need to unleash the unreasonable power of creativity. It's no longer about coming up with the 'big idea' – creative leaders need to go for lots of small ideas continuously. Call it what you will but tinkering, brainstorming and problem-solving all play a vital role in driving success... In Praise of Tinkering

Age of Now World, here we come

David Simon of Simon Property received a pay package worth more than $137 million for last year, and the typical CEO took home $9.6 million, according to an analysis by The Associated Press."

"Top U.S. public companies made only modest increases to CEO pay levels in 2011, despite strong company profitability, according to results from The Wall Street Journal/Hay Group 2011 CEO Compensation Study released [May 21, 2012]. The Wall Street Journal partnered with Hay Group for the fifth year on its annual study, which examined how large company CEOs were compensated across all forms of pay in fiscal year 2011.

• Top CEO pay equals 3,489 years for typical worker ; A quirk of fate can mean the difference between a life of freedom and the chance to acquire prosperity and a life of misery and subjugation. We are all boat people [Far too often a major communication gap exists between a company's risk management program and their human resources department. This lack of communication means that most companies are failing to effectively monitor their human-capital risks Capital risk management: taking on human ; Apple also contemplated illegally dividing the digital content world with Amazon, allowing each to ‘own the category’ of its choice — audio/video to Apple and e-books to Amazon Fifty Speeds of Cold River - The margins are low and there is almost no flow ]

• · Birth of a Book & End of Sookie Stackhouse: Top Stories of the Week; The biggest beneficiaries from the retail renaissance will be large international banks

• · · I may or may not post tomorrow 10 Writing Tips from a Real-Life Editor ; They say that anything worth doing is worth doing badly. This is as true of filmmaking as it is of anything, and it's the final thing that I'd say to a Christian who wants to be the next Spielberg or Soderberg. If you want to make films, then make films. Make them badly. Make them with iPhones and flip cameras, edit them on a laptop or in a computer lab at your middle school. Make lots of them and don't worry about whether or not they're good until you've made 10 or 20. Even then, don't worry when they're bad. Look for the things you've done well and figure out how to apply those lessons to the entire next project. Create Culture, Not Subculture

• · · · Vladimir Nabakov needed his pencils sharpened just so - 'The sun loosed its summer light.... a liquid so rich I wanted to eat it, store it, make honey of it for when winter came'. What it takes to get writers writing;. One of our core philosophies ... was that it wasn't about the bank telling customers what they wanted- it was about the customers being able to tell us,” Ms Collins said. The bank has achieved this through enabling users to place feedback and encouraging them to vote on current projects, as well as submit ideas for new developments Lightweight enters mobile banking game

• · · · · Democratic governments are all about collective action ; Charting the new globe-trotting science of moviemaking How to Make a Hollywood Hit

• · · · · · One of Google’s top requests from their users is the ability to roam the vast Australian continent. Unfortunately, the remoteness of the outback has posed a challenge for our traditional Street View cars and trikes One of Google’s top requests ; New Research: Consumers Trust Online Reviews more than any other Media This research shows that 70% of consumers trust online reviews - placing this form of media ahead of newpaper articles (58%), company websites (58%), television ads (47%), radio ads (42%) and online banner ads (33%) explosion of word-of-mouth