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It is always pleasant to gallavant with Polish mates like Christopher and Lidka or Slavek, Izy & Basha on Friday - the pirozky nights. To boot, watching the the fireworks with Greek friends like Vicki, Nicki, George Krys, Jules and my better half when even 3 am the night is still young on Australia Day weekends ;-) Like Poe we appear to have Indulged in a drink, perhaps, as in the past, to treat what he called a long weekend attack ; This website provided light reading on Australia Day I Enjoy Reading this pepper and salt mosaic of what is good and bad or ugly about the land of opportunity

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle As Certain as Death: Methods for fleshing out characters!
This website is a companion to The Buying of the President 2008. Like the book, this site explores the roles that money and special interests play in presidential politics.

But unlike the book, which will provide a behind-the-scenes examination of how big money influences the presidential election process, this site is a work in progress — a continually updated window into the 2008 race that’s also richly supplemented with details, insights, and revelations from previous campaigns and, where feasible, those who engineered them. In addition to details about the 2008 candidates and their political benefactors, for example, the site includes everything from a history of money in presidential politics to in-depth, on-the-record interviews with current and former presidential candidates, consultants and strategists, donors and fundraisers, and academics who have studied the intricacies of the political system. What’s more, the site offers the Center for Public Integrity’s complete body of work on presidential elections, most notably cover-to-cover, full-text-searchable copies of the three previous books in the Buying of the President series."

• My Crown Employee experiences remind me just how Amazingly reliably the lobby groups operate in Australia and Amerika ; Limits to reining in the lobbyists ; Indeed, THERE’S no such thing as changing the government without changing the... country Links of Bespacific links ; The Battle for Bennelong: The Adventures of Maxine McKew, Aged 50 Something Exit Right: The Unravelling of John Howard
• · I was thinking about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, with regard to writing, reading, and life. (So I'm a bit of a nerd. This wouldn't surprise any of you by now.) Wikis, blogs and other collaborative web technologies could usher in a new era of science. Science 2.0: Great New Tool, or Great Risk?; As to how the Heisenberg Principle applies to life -- well, I'm still working that out ;
• · · Over 20 million people in the UK used search engines for accessing travel information in the first quarter of 2007, Google UK and comScore, a research firm, found in a study carried out on online consumer behaviour in the travel sector. Google, comScore track online consumer behaviour in UK travel sector ; A new survey from Carat, a media communications company, found that the Hollywood writers’ strike is not driving viewers away from TV but is affecting their viewing patterns, with 72 percent of respondents watching the same amount of prime-time TV than before the strike, 25 percent of people watching less and 3 percent watching more. Writers' Strike
• · · · One of the things a writer is supposed to do is to strip away the surface of our everyday selves and get underneath what's polished and pretty to the more essential stuff of life. The Dangers of Writing Fiction ; A moment with: Marjane Satrapi, writer, artist and film director of 'Persepolis' Marjane Satrapi

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Of course, there’s no equating the artistic talents of teens and the middle aged. Still the spectrum is filled with possibilities … First my daughter Gabriella started to engage her artistic flair on the web and now my mate from the village of Longueville also rebbubles his photographic imaginations. I love the way John put it: Vibrant middle aged male trying to get in contact with his right side brain. Generally clueless ;-)

Turning 50: The price is right to rock back the clock Men behaving badly
I’m a little slow on the uptake about my awareness of noteworthy 2008 dates. On 19 January 2008 AD in The Sydney Morning Herald Susan Wyndham wrote: Turning 50 can be the start of your most powerful decade with a good mix of energy, experience and authority. It's time to let the real you emerge.

But as this writer notes it's not necessarily a turn for the worse: For my 40th birthday, many people came up to console me that at least I wasn't turning 50. At 47, AARP started mailing notices to my house inviting me to join up.
I’m also not overly concerned about my impending journey into deeper middle age and turning 50, so, the recent realization that this milestone in my life also occurs on Easter Sunday (I was born on a Sunday also) is kind of cool. Although I’m no longer a practicing Catholic, I find it comforting to think that I may be starting a new life with this odd coincedence.

• Life begins at 50. %0 is the new 40?; With Kylie about to turn four-oh, and Madonna, Jacko and Prince the big 50, it’s an issue we need to resolve pronto for fear of becoming culturally disoriented. Can we love our pop heroes when they’re no longer in youth’s first flush? ; Kabbalah comes off well in latest tome but religion professor makes some sweeping statements Kabbalah: The star-studded spiritualism; Fifty is nifty if you’re ‘Smart’
• · Tale of two 50-yr-olds Madonna's face compared to another 50 year-old; What does 50 look like in 2008? How to Be Fabulous after 40
• · · Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse, Paris Hilton, the list goes on and on (can't forget Madonna). maureena wonders why it's OK for men to sleep around but not Are girls too easy? ; Saga of fame and violence
• · · · My brother in Law John Drayton loves drinking the family wine, but the family history is not so easy to swallow. THE Draytons, the pioneer Hunter Valley winegrowers, have endured much violent and unexpected death since founding members migrated in the 1850s. Half the family was lost to typhus on the voyage to Australia. Curse steals another Drayton

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We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there's time for at least a few more books yet.

PS: I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as 'I am not dead'. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think - it's too soon to tell Paul Kidby site (via Galleycat) The news of my D day has been exaggerated (sic)…

Can we change the heart of reading habits? Judge Says Book Reading/Purchasing Is Private
Court records unsealed last week indicate that earlier this year federal prosecutors had tried to get a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Wisconsin to approve a subpoena compelling Amazon.com to disclose the identity of thousands of people who bought used books online. They were investigating former Madison public official Robert D'Angelo, indicted recently on charges that he ran a used book business of his office and did not report the proceeds as income.

Judge Stephen Crocker turned down the request, ruling that there is a First Amendment right to keep your reading habits private. And the AP says he also "unsealed documents detailing the showdown against prosecutors' wishes."

He wrote, "Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases." Crocker added, "The subpoena is troubling because it permits the government to peek into the reading habits of specific individuals without their knowledge or permission.... It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against somebody else."

Apparently, "Crocker brokered a compromise in which [Amazon] would send a letter to the 24,000 customers describing the investigation and asking them to voluntarily contact prosecutors if they were interested in testifying."

• Cold River and InkWell partner Richard Pine says: Movies sell books and our goal is to have the highest book-to-film ratio in the business. Patricia's enthusiasm, resilience and contacts are first rate and we are certain that our clients will benefit enormously from the focus and energy she will bring to the presentation of their work to agents, managers, producers, studios and networks Purchasing Is Private; [Printing poetry by using letterpress allows the time to appreciate and feel each word as it is put into place ... The touch of words; Introducing the 'Best Blog Posts of 2007', an anthology of writing from Australian independent blogs over the past year. Best blog posts '07]
• · Desert Island Discs: My All Time Top Ten Tunes; The rise and rise of stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s seems to reveal our growing desire to connect more sensually with food. Food glorious food fresh Zummer bread …
• · The Lees have a long history of libel stoushes with foreign media, battles they have never lost when heard in Singapore's own courts, which grants them damages payouts that set world records. Singapore libel case a test of Murdoch's bona fides; For the first time since Robert Kennedy we have a presidential candidate, Barack Obama, inspiring real interest in America The politics of hope
• · · Punters and Jokies are the followers and fans of stand-up comedians: here is some insider knowledge about their characteristics Punters and Jokies; Part of the richness of any culture is its language and one facet is the vast array of names parents bestow upon their children. What’s in a name?
• · · · If music be food of love we are starved of affection; We may be in the midst of a true paradigm shift away from one true identity to a new worldview based on a plurality of identities Plurality of identities
• · · · · High-tech CCTV technology installed in Sydney CBD
PLAYING up in Sydney's CBD just became harder;
This discussion paper analyses the Howard government’s Regional Partnerships Program, the subject of a recent Australian National Audit Office report. The authors discuss the democratic implications and question the political value of pork-barrelling. PDF file attached Rolling out the regional pork barrel: a threat to democracy?
• · · · · · Murdoch's Australian papers covered the election with an eye to the likely post-poll climate, writes RODNEY TIFFEN Rupert Murdoch and the Claytons editorial endorsements
; Research obtained under freedom of information laws raises questions about the accuracy of the Howard government’s pre-election advertising campaign on internet safety, writes PETER MARES on our partner website, Creative Economy How NetAlert accentuated the negative

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My cousin Andrej Imrich was 60 this week and there is a lovely description of the village where my father and Andrej were born - Little Monastery on the Poprad River
Pilhov is more of a hamlet than a city. It is today incorporated into the nearby village of Mnisek nad Popradom (= Little Monastery on the Poprad River), which is right where the Poprad flows north across the border with Poland. This is in northeastern Slovakia, about 20 miles east of the High Tatra Mountains, in the region former called Spis County.

Imrich is the Slovak version of a firstname (Czech: Emerich), originally from the German Emmerich. There was an early Hungarian prince, Imre (the Magyar version of the name), who became a saint soon after the Magyars became Christians, so the name was always popular throughout the old Kingdom of Hungary. The Italian version of the name, Amerigo, led to the name for America.
Pilhov; Andrej Imrich

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If you are visiting Vienna in February 2008 make sure you get the TICKETS for WORLD Premiere ´The Lovers The Outcasts´

The Lovers The Outcasts James Cumes A Playwright’s Commentary

Like so many others, I have always thought the Petrov Affair was a great story that deserved more dramatic treatment than it has so far received.
When it happened in 1954, I was a First Secretary in the Department of External Affairs in Canberra. Some might think I was cheek by jowl with the "nest of traitors" alleged at the time to infest the Department. However, I could claim always to be on friendly terms with Foreign Minister R.G. (later Lord) Casey who coined the expression; and I knew no one with whom I was not then and would not now be proud to associate.
That applies particularly to Ric Throssell whose career was largely and most unjustly destroyed by the Affair.
That I knew several of these people as well as others who were involved in the events in some way or another, gave me - potentially at least - some insights into the "Affair."
For those reasons, I wrote a play, based on it but treating the details of the story with some dramatic licence.
Quite by chance, the play came to the notice of someone keen to have it staged and it was taken up by a theatre company. That was early in 2007. As with most enterprises of its kind, there have been some vicissitudes since but the play is now set for its World Première at the beginning of February.
The story arouses a variety of emotions, personal, political and even of course strategic in so far as it demonstrates the clash of Cold-War ideologies in the second half of the 20th Century.
"Will you be able to get for me any documents or reports about this man in external affairs? Is that possible?" the Australian Security man asks.
"Very difficult but I think I can get something," Vladimir replies.
That is the essence of how it all began.
The “something” and, ultimately, the several things Vladimir “gets,” destroy some people’s lives; and it also appears, in the process to have destroyed much of Vladimir’s own life, as well as Eva's life and his loving relationship with her.
When Vladimir defects, he betrays his cause – whether we regard it as good or evil - his country and his professional ethic. What he opts for turns out to be a boring and rather feckless freedom.
Eva wants to remain loyal to her country and to return to her family in Moscow. She opts to go home – where of course she knows she will have to endure Soviet tyranny and, perhaps, imprisonment or even execution.
But she is vulnerable. She too can be “seduced” or, more accurately, intimidated; and she is. She is “seduced” by fear – fear of those who mean to be her friends as much as fear of those who would continue to abuse her.

The Soviet couriers Moscow has sent to collect her take her by car from Canberra to Sydney. On the way, she contemplates suicide but she arrives safely at the airport in Sydney. There the couriers haul her brutally through a crowd of reporters and public to the aircraft that will take her back to her home and family.
The intent of the crowd is friendly but she finds the scuffle terrifying. She loses a shoe. Weeping and disheveled, she is dragged up the aircraft gangway with her shins and knees scraping on the stairs.
To the watching crowd, she becomes a pathetic object – a victim of coarse, inhuman brutality, inflicted by an evil regime.

The photo (see James Cumes website on Authors den for the photo) of her being dragged into the aircraft becomes part of the legend of the Affair - an icon which, even for us now, symbolizes the conflicts of the time.
An attractive young woman is being abused by thugs.
The apparently obscene use of force is seen to typify the obscenity of the totalitarianism on which the Soviet's communist ideology is constructed.
Her lost shoe becomes a symbol too: a symbol of yet another obscenity committed by an oppressive ideology and regime – a totalitarian communist regime that cruelly mistreats the weak and vulnerable, fragile women included.
Aboard the aircraft, speaking to the crew about the Soviet couriers, Eva tells them “They have guns. They will use them.”

Again, this identifies them as thugs. They must be disarmed. Eva must be freed.
For the Australian Government and its agents who had seduced her husband, it could now not be otherwise. They had to be the white knights in shining armor riding to the rescue. They were obliged to “free” her and – incidentally - use her to denounce communism and those who might be shown to have any link, however tenuous, to it.
“I think I can get something," Vladimir had said.
He kept his promise. Now Eva could join him in keeping it.

Eva became a darling of the media. She was described as beautiful, elegant and a leader of women’s fashion. “I found myself publicized like a film star,” she wrote.
They were both used – should we say, fully exploited? - by the Royal Commission on Espionage. In the end, they were denounced by the Commission as people of small consequence who could not be trusted; but the Commission made a significant exception to this judgment. In their “naming” of mostly innocent Australians who had in some way “collaborated” with them in “undermining democracy,” the Commission found that they were "witnesses of truth."

Afterwards, the Menzies Government was securely installed; the Australian Labor Party split. As other events supervened, the media turned their attention to other issues.
Eva and Vladimir would never be forgotten; but they were ignored. Eva had a nervous collapse but she recovered. She and Vladimir were able to live out their lives quietly in suburbia. They may have ceased to be lovers and became outcasts – unrecognized and unacclaimed by either side, except as they would be seen as leading actors in an episode of a historic conflict. In that role, they still symbolize the Cold War and its conflicting ideologies. They also remind us, even today, how human rights can be violated, even by the well-meaning upholders of freedom and democracy, and how personal lives can be shattered in the process of resolving great political and strategic issues.
Prime Minister Menzies won the election of 29 May 1954. He held office until 1966 when, voluntarily, he stepped down. He is still, by far, the longest-serving Prime Minister in Australian history.
• Petrov Affair in Austria ; James Cumes
• · Victory Over Want ; Czech actor Marko Pustišek

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I've always preferred prognostication to nostalgia: The Shortest 2008 Trend Prediction Ever... Personality Matters!

My former boss, Dr Russell Cope, who is known for his insight and concerns about libraries is reviewing a book by Alan Bundy on Australian Libraries Cradle to grave ; Around Malabar a stonethrow away from Dr Cope Cafes like Lighthearted (where Ruby’s friend used to live, on the corner of the lovely and wide Anzac Parade at Malabar also Matter Next best Coffee after the Lighthearted Café is the Café on the Bay

Books Glorious Books Throwing the Book at Them
We wonder if the officials behind this policy have ever tried to repair a bad credit report — an experience that rivals Dante’s “Inferno.” Check it out

It turns out the library can do more than just shush you. If you accumulate enough unpaid late fees, some New York libraries are ready to hit you where it really hurts: your credit score. They have reported millions of dollars in such bad debts. Most people make good before their creditworthiness is damaged. But there is something chilling in this kind of threat from a library.

• What Libraries Stand For; Love that book? Love that Cold River? Then set it free ; The nature of an opinion blog means that most of the opinions expressed here about links that irritate or inspire or entertain me Letters; This is my third and last post about what my move from old to new media dragons has taught me. In the first, I discussed its dynamism, in the second its amazing level of clarity. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learned to Love the Blog: The Endless Conversation
• · Young adults are the heaviest users of public libraries despite the ease with which they can access a wealth of information over the Internet from the Young adults are the heaviest users of public libraries ; It is a conflict that is fading from living memory, but a “blog” from the trenches of the First World War has become a surprise hit on the internet. Soldier’s ‘blog’ from WW1 trenches is internet hit ; Reading? It's already covered You can keep your e-books, thanks — the paperback is perfect as is. ; Australian Library Collections The Naked Truth about Literature and Life ; Cold River: The Cold Truth of Freedom
• · · Technorati made changes this week to the way it counts inbound links for purposes of determining its blog rankings. Technorati Makes Changes To Blog Rankings. Big Hit For No. 1 Engadget ; Best Blog Sites ; Time Magazine's 50 Best Web Sites (Time Uses Flex?) ; Wanted: Single dot-com Yenta seeks ambitious Mr. Big with deep pockets for a long-term relationship. Parent of Dating Sites Looks for a Match
• · · · Famous Blogs - Blog Of The Day Awards - Top Blog Awards - 2007 Weblog Awards ; Amazon Kindle: Kool or Krap? My Top 10 Stories of 2007; Instead of just jotting down the top trends that have a high probability of success and therefore are safe as predictions, I thought it would be interesting to first look at what the best bloggers have to say and see what the implications are for manufacturing, then go out on a limb and make some predictions. Predictions 2008: Fighting Back a Recession and Increasing Trust

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We are drowning in information
and starved for knowledge.
-John Naisbitt, Chairman of The Naisbitt Group

My favourite time of year is the period between Christmas and New Year. It's like a week of Sundays. No one expects any work to get done, the streets are empty, the pressure is off. Just getting dressed feels like an accomplishment Why I love Christmas

At this special time with family and friends I love stories that remind me of what’s important in life. It’s also about the power of friendship and of family…and maybe not taking life so seriously. The transnational family, nourished by email, chatrooms, long-distance calls and SMSs has increasingly become a feature of migrant communities. The Best Gifts Are Simply Love And Understanding

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"I'm not saying it's The Da Vinci Code, but there are aspects to it that make you think of it. There's a lot of art, a lot of history and a lot of religion in it." Borders' Zan Farr says it's her "personal favorite" of the season. Cold River - Winter books preview: Warmth, fire and chills await book lovers this season

The harmonic richness of Newspaper Cold River Book Coverage, Ups and Downs A flood of reviews geared for 2008 V Grinch Stole Christmas
Chicago Sun Times books editor Teresa Budasi wrote about the Grinch Who Stole the Books Section, telling readers on Dec. 23 "the Books section in its current form will cease to exist after today," citing "the economic climate of the news business." Reduced weekly book coverage has been merged into the Sunday Show section of the paper, along with other arts and entertainment coverage.

As Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas celebrates its 50th anniversary -- complete with a new retrospective edition (Random House, 82 pages, $24.99) that includes 32 pages of commentary and archival images on the history of the Grinch -- the Books section in its current form will cease to exist after today.

• How the Grinch stole the Books section ; On the other hand, next week the New Orleans Times-Picayune "will debut The Reading Life, which will feature expanded coverage of books and the New Orleans literary scene each week on the cover of Friday's Living section" instead of Sunday coverage. They promise "new features devoted to book clubs and reading groups, literary movers and shakers, and expanded bestseller lists." Reading Life: THE BELLS IN THEIR SILENCE
• · Bookish pessimists are elitist and wrong: the Internet is good for you. Stars in the Net sky ; Ever vigilant, the mass media dug into a critical social issue and rooted out the information in their never-ending quest to guarantee the people’s right to know. Oops! The media did it again; In Cold River The characters always want what they don’t have.
• · · Identity theft is something that has been around as long as fraud itself. A gram of caution is worth a ton of remedy ; “My house is just a huge expensive brick weighing me down”, writes a homeowner on a Swiss political blog. The Swiss are home free
• · · · Anorak of Cold River Links To Things: Best Of The Web; It was probably inevitable. As one of Tony Soprano's sidekicks observed in a classic episode of the TV series, the two most resilient sectors of the economy are organised crime and certain aspects of showbusiness. The aspects, that is, known as the world's oldest profession - now mixing it with the world's newest technologies Organised Crime ; The Minister for Ports and Waterways, Joe Tripodi, yesterday appointed Mr Greiner to develop a new system for accessing the port amid lengthy ship queues Greiner to tackle coal ship standoff

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Old Friends, sat on their park bench like bookends...Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy. Old Friends.
-Dedicated to Steven Monaghan, my friend who invaded our place with Tng Ling this Christmas

I wish all my readers a very very happy and prosperous year ahead. I would like to thank all my linkers my linkers and especially Google engineers for their support and encouragement. Without which I do not think this blog would have been what it is today. ranking as #5 on Google and everywhere else …

This is one of the best comeback lines of all time. It is a portion of National Public Radio (NPR) interview between a female broadcaster and US Marine Corps General Reinwald who was about to sponsor Boy Scouts visiting his military installation.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: So, General Reinwald, what things are you going to teach these young boys when they visit your base?

GENERAL REINWALD: We’re going to teach them climbing, canoeing, archery, and
shooting.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Shooting! That’s a bit irresponsible, isn’t it?

GENERAL REINWALD: I don’t see why, they’ll be properly supervised on the rifle range.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Don’t you admit that this is a terribly dangerous activity to be teaching children?

GENERAL REINWALD: I don’t see how. We will be teaching them proper rifle discipline before they even touch a firearm.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER: But you’re equipping them to become violent killers.

GENERAL REINWALD: Well, ma’am, you’re equipped to be a prostitute, but you’re not one, are you?

The radio went silent and the interview ended. You gotta love the Marines!

PS: It has been the worst and the best of holliday seasons. Christmas Eve with Bawa and Dial Holly Day with Richard and June. Catching up with Gabbie and friends from Holland UK. Dinner with Michael Parkinson at Swell Bronte etc … even swimming in swelly seas with Mal at Bronte. But it also involved going to funerals and spending time at hospitals is something we had to do, but life must go on …

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I have been sitting on this joke for quite some time. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks did it too. He became rich really rich like us ;-)
… I drove by big houses and would wonder who lived there. What did they do for a living? How did they make their money? Someday, I would tell myself, I would live in a house like that. Every weekend I would do it. I worked jobs I didn't like. I worked jobs I loved, but had no chance of being a career. I worked jobs that barely paid the rent. I had so many jobs my parents wondered if I would be stable. Success and Motivation

Media Dragon denies they knew spinach was a performance enhancing drug Bohemian Bloggers Are Richer and Happier ;-)
I'm rich, I'm sport and computer lover.I pick up on the web everything in which I recognize me. This is the world that sorrounds me ;-) Herewithin we detail the many schemes and scams by which our rich have become _incredibly_ rich, our poor poorer and the rest of us left struggling to get by

The internet retailer you choose just might, without disclosure, install software on your computer to snoop on your web browsing. Would you believe it could be one of the country’s oldest retailers Brian Krebs at the Security Fix blog has this story
“It’s a cold case 3500 years old”, are the opening words to this fascinating documentary. Ancient Egypt was the very center of world power, and managed through hieroglyphs to convey that rich history to us in the modern world. The Pharaohs and the dynasties are for the most part better documented than modern leaders. Our Presidents and their legacy lives on in the form of artifacts left in their usually very ornate tombs and pyramids.
• Cold River’s destiny. The book will read you … It’s a cold case 3500 years old ; It would be so nice if something made sense for a change 7 Surreal Urban Street Art Installation Projects: Brad Downey Brings Wonderland to Life
• · Warren Buffett has been all over the business press recently suggesting that the very rich, those on the Forbes 400 list, are taxed advantageously to the rest of the workforce. That it makes no sense that his tax bill as a percentage of income is lower than that of his secretary or housekeeper. Warren Buffett , Taxes and the Presidency ; In Internet nothing is created, everything is copied
• · · We're doing a series of astrological predictions for the 2008 Presidential candidates. War! Terror! Weirdness! Covering the War on Terror, War on Drugs and General Weirdness Death by 1000 Papercuts ; You spend too much time sat in your bedroom, on your PC Are you sure you couldn’t have found the time, Swallowed your pride and admitted your jealousy one of my city’s many front men
• · · · Now to some rubbish on the net … The Derrty Truth is updated daily with celebrity news and fodder for social commentary; Pages and pages filled with sleepless celebrity gossips, daily star tracks and latest photo shoots. Life should be too short for this … Thousand Gossips Blogs ; Our Bollywood covers all the latest happenings in Bollywood and does not indulge in tabloid journalism Our Bollywood

Today is the end of another start of different era for Stefan Albinski golfer, tax guru and Austrac expert Ski of Champions ;-) Aha, the Marriott Hotel puts on a great Ritzy Christmas spread ...

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If you thought Christmas get-togethers couldn't get any worse, you never went to one with Norman Mailer. As the season kicks off, Frances Wilson discovers why literature is full of tales of disastrous parties Parties: a literary survival guide

The World's Longest Literary Honeymoon A little Tax Help

Throughout history, taxes and all things associated with them have been universally loathed. In the Bible, Jesus was thought to be quite peculiar because he hung about with tax collectors. During the Middle Ages, the Hundred Years War was fought because of, amongst other things, excessive taxation. Taxes too helped bring about the American War of Independence: Great Britain was levying duties upon its colonies, and not allowing them a say in how those monies were spent, “no taxation without representation.” More recently, Margaret Thatcher lost her popularity because of a brouhaha over taxes, and in Australia John Howard once very nearly lost his job over the introduction of GST. We don’t like it, this legalised theft. We work hard for what little income we get, and resent any amount of it being taken away by the faceless boffins at the tax department. This attitude means we enjoy immensely any story in which Inland Revenue gets its comeuppance, and take great relish when the little person triumphs over horrid bureaucracy. Stories where taxmen are brought to their knees are usually inspiration for amazing deeds (how many revolutionaries have aped the Boston Tea Party?), and one might think such a tale, such a true story, that happened in our own New Zealand, could make a particularly juicy film. One might think that; one would be wrong.

We’re Here To Help has, at first glance, all the makings of a rollicking yarn. It’s Joe Public fighting Faceless Government Behemoth! It’s Chivalrous Man defending the honour of Beautiful Damsel! It’s quite literally David and Goliath, and, just like always, David emerges triumphant and justified, but there’s something lacking: “interest.” The synopses of the film describe it as a “saga of Kafkaesque and yet comedic proportions.” It’s not. Dave Henderson is treated execrably and is constantly frustrated by the IRD, but to describe his experience as Kafkaesque is not merely hyperbole but does a disservice to Franz Kafka himself. Others have compared We’re Here To Help to that classic of Australian film The Castle (1997). It’s not even close. The Castle was cleverly scripted, brilliantly cast, and delightfully acted. We’re Here To Help: not so much. The acting is rather stilted and the dialogue a little verbose. Erik Thompson (The Black Balloon, Beautiful, Somersault) has been well-cast, but only because he bears a passing resemblance to the real Dave Henderson. Michael Hurst (I’ll Make You Happy, Desperate Remedies, The Tattooist) doesn’t do quite as good an impression of Rodney Hide as he’d like to think, and succeeds only in looking like Michael Hurst in a fat suit and a bald wig. Worse still, the plot isn’t actually that appealing. WE’RE HERE TO HELP (NZ 2007)
DIRECTOR Jonathan Cullinane
WRITER Jonathan Cullinane
CAST Erik Thomson, Miriama Smith, Geoff Clendon, Jason Hoyte, John Leigh, Stephen Papps, Michael Hurst, Peter Elliott, Greg Johnson
NZ RATING PG Contains coarse language
NOTES Based on the book Be Very Afraid, by Dave Henderson

• Be Very Afraid; [People love to complain about literary cliques, but communities of like minds have nurtured much great writing The social side of literature; Umberto Eco's mind is as sharp and witty as ever, writes Ben Naparstek of the man who says he invented Dan Brown The Armani of literature ]
• · In Austria I am part of new literature; in the Czech Republic I'm not Bah, humbug, it's party season again; There's a question that sometimes comes up in conversations about interactive fiction: Is it literature, or a game? Art, film or game? 'Inanimate Alice' redefines 'publish'; Literature has a great unifying force and it can act as a catalyst amidst the diversity prevailing in our region. American dreamer

Ach, a morning of Svety Mikulas ...

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Some symbols are just so powerful you can't get past them. Take Cold War inside the insider’s story Cold River. Life in my teenage years under communism was memorably described as nasty, brutish and short. I know that soccer is a very simple game made unnecessarily complicated by too much analysis and over thinking (a bit like communism really). The simple and deadly experiences of my sister Aga are captured inside it and so is the sale of anthrax et al. This month comes a story along these lines from the old Czech or Slovakia. The Imrich Prophecy

Our Future on a Hotter Planet
Imrich: & Enriched uranium that could have been made into a "dirty bomb" by terrorists has been seized by Slovakian police after it was allegedly offered for sale for $1m.

Two Hungarians and a Ukrainian suspected of peddling the radioactive material were arrested in eastern Slovakia and Hungary on Wednesday. Michal Kopcik, a senior Slovakian police official, said the men had 481.4 grams of uranium in powdered form. It is believed to have come from a former Soviet republic, but the identity of the intended buyer was not disclosed. Tests showed it contained 98.6 per cent uranium-235. Uranium is considered weapons-grade if it contains at least 85 per cent uranium-235.

• Uranium for 'dirty bomb' seized by Slovak police ; [Non-Weapons Grade HEU Bust in Slovakia ]
• · A MAP of the earth's sunniest locations reveal that Australia is a sunburnt country, with plenty of solar energy to spare Australia, how sunburnt are we? ; Spotlights on the climate crusaders
• · A politician has as much legal right as any other citizen to resign from his job at the drop of a hat or at the beckon of a lovelier position Improving politicians' behaviour
• · · Until the early 1990s, most Azerbaijanis in Iran referred to themselves as Turks. In Search Of Multiple Identities; Lessons in Cultural Suicide

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Blogs ensures that good news travels fast and bad news travels faster, allowing mistakes to be recognized quickly and fixed promptly; people own their actions and own up to their errors so that they can learn from them; people know where they stand, know what’s expected of them, and know what it takes to get attention during the election time ….

The reason Gen Y favoured Rudd was because he addressed our very real concerns for the future of our country and our people. Consider Mark Twain: Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear

As Mark Twain said Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying, identified denial as the first of her five stages of dealing with grief and tragedy. The others are anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

We have got to make sure we are recruiting good people, we have got to get our organisation together, we have got to work on policy. You can't leave an election to the last four months. An election is a four-year proposition and right around Australia the Liberal Party has got to come to grips with this and we have got to lift our game.

• ALP - the natural party of government; [Why the Ruddslide? Why the Ruddslide?; Unlike their US counterparts, Australian psychologists have rejected any involvement in torture Torturous acts]
• · Murdoch's Australian papers covered the election with an eye to the likely post-poll climate Rupert Murdoch and the Claytons editorial endorsements ; APO ELECTION COVERAGE
• · · The first Australian social news site might help us decide, writes MARGARET SIMONS The Content Makers: Media Dragons Understanding the Media in Australia What's worth reading? ; As Web 2.0 technologies proliferate, an increasing number of Australians, especially young Australians, are relying primarily on information and communication technologies to engage and interact with each other and the world. Legal aspects of Web 2.0 activities: management of legal risk associated with use of YouTube, MySpace and Second Life ; Isys searches Bloggers

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Walt Disney once famously said, “If you can dream it, you can do it”. (He also went on to say, “Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse,” but that’s not where I want to go today). Disney’s spirit is echoed in the inspiration that drew me to join Saatchi & Saatchi: “Nothing is Impossible”. I love stories about people who transform dreams into reality and a great one has been taking place in where I live, New York City Theatre of Dreams

Can we change the heart of memoirs Last Lecture with Randy?
The NY Post reports on the auction for WSJ columnist Jeff Zaslow's book based on Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch's "last lecture," delivered in September by the 46-year-old computer scientist who suffers from terminal pancreatic cancer.

"I'm dying and having fun," Pausch said in the lecture, "And I'm going to keep having fun every day because there is no other way to do it."

The Post says "the lecture became an instant hit on the Internet, with people calling and e-mailing Zaslow to say how Pausch's inspirational words had helped them deal with their own problems, made them appreciate their families more and encouraged them to let their kids be more creative." The auction, by agent David Black, is said to have reached $6.75 million in NY Post dollars.

• Cold Lecture; [I am flattered and embarassed by all the recent attention to my "Last Lecture." I am told that well over a million people have viewed the lecture online Randy Pausch's Web Site ; Masters of the taxing film project: Elsa Ryan and her husband Warren are putting everything on the line to achieve their dream: Writing, directing and shooting their own feature film Shadows of the Past]
• · Ed Glaeser, who is always worth reading, writes a feisty fact-filled review of Krugman’s recent pro-Democrat book. He begins: Princeton Professor of Economics Paul Krugman talks about how the New Deal society has been dismantled in America, and the reasons for it. He brings it back to a revival of Southern issues about race being used by the 'Movement Conservatives' to undo various social policies during the present adminstration. Paul Krugman is also a writer and columnist for the New York Times.
Human knowledge is produced by intellectual combat that exposes weak premises and faulty conclusions to withering challenge. We are often improved more by our ideological enemies than by our friends, because our enemies push us hardest. In that spirit, I welcome the publication of Paul Krugman’s “The Conscience of a Liberal” (W.W. Norton, 352 pages, $25.95). The book espouses a world-view that is in many ways diametrically opposed to my own, but the process of intellectually disagreeing with Mr. Krugman fired my own passion for liberty more than the rhetoric of any current GOP presidential candidate does. Where is the Middle Class?]

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POLLS predict a Ruddslide on Saturday. Yet, beneath the wave that Kevin Rudd appears to be riding, there are a series of undercurrents that may overturn years of accepted political wisdom Opinion from the Murdoch empire

WWLL wall-to-wall Labor and Liberal Will to win: tough and tight
Cross your fingers and hope you get what you vote for.

Labor seems likely to have a landslide election victory in Australia on the threshold of an economic collapse even more devastating than that 0f 1929.
There are intriguing similarities between the forthcoming Australian elections and those of 1929. In 1929, the Scullin Labor Government won a landslide victory and took office just 2 days before the New York Stock-Exchange Crash of Black Thursday, 24 October ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Now we have a similar situation in that centre-right Prime Minister John Howard, after eleven years in office, looks like being swept away in a landslide by centre-left Labor led by Kevin Rudd. Though perhaps unlikely, it may be that Howard could even lose his seat in the House of Representatives.

• Is Rudd Another Scullin? ; [Dr James Cumes is author of The Human Mirror: The Narcissistic Imperative in Human Behaviour. His new book America's Suicidal Statecraft was published in November 2006. In 2000 AD James encouraged Media Dragon to pen down Cold River James Cumes; A healthy dose of scepticism is crucial to our ability to process information, especially during an election campaign. A sceptic's guide to politics ; Rudd and Howard are both guilty of dumbing-down political debate through their use of pithy YouTube statements and glittering websites to divert debate. Hey, pollies, you're in my space. Get out!]
• · This is an exclusive indepth report on what it’s like to being a lower house candidate My Experience as a Candidate at Federal and State Elections; Former White House press spokesman Scott McLellan will discuss in his forthcoming spring book WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What's Wrong with Washington how top officials got him to mislead the press. A very brief posted excerpt reads: "The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself. Scott McLellan: They Got Me to Lie: There was one problem. It was not true
• · Australians are much more socially mobile than Americans - but there are worrying signs Flipping burgers in America, land of missed opportunity ; No-one knows less about Australian elections than Antony Green who has blurbs everywhere. Czech out Mackerras pendulum … wisdom v hot air Last Minute Reports; Professor Brian Costar believes Labor will win about 36 additional seats to give it 96 House of Representatives members. Betting market
• · · Ambit Gambit Gambler; The Crikey Guide to the 2007 Election at Larvatus Prodeo gambler
• · · · Media Dragons inside the Blogging Community gambling on election and beyond A Must Read APO: French Zo Zo Zo ; Tropical Political Club; Graham Young loves blogs! Best Blog Posts of 2007: Call for Nominations
• · · · · Ach Top 100 Australian Blogs Index; A new blog every month? Are you nuts?
• · · · · · 100 Important Living Australians John Hatton used to have a metaphor for democracy - sunlight being the best disinfectant. Top 100

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Dear Diary entry 22 November 2007 AD:



In Parliament, John Hatton was very good value. We need a few more like him. In art, John is creating ripples in all kinds of rivers and landscapes … A noted British author once described good painting as arresting an image in time, such that film or cinema could never do. Painting offers something that no human eye, film or cinematic experience could deliver: the ability to capture an event or scene through the lens of an artist. One and all Australians should consider czeching out Different Strokes at 14 Foster Street in Queanbeyan The Artists Shed: John and David Hatton's art exhibition in Queanbeyan from today 22 November until Christmas

Ach, After spending September at Jervis Bay and October at Byron Bay, we could not agree more with John’s sentiment about the overkill of the development on the south coast. HUSKISSON is in danger of becoming another Byron Bay as developers circle the seaside village. In recent weeks two bids have been made to redevelop key commercial properties fronting Jervis Bay, and there are fears developers may move in to take advantage of Shoalhaven City Council planning laws left in limbo HUSKY ‘AT RISK’ ; Independent Mr. John Hatton, the anti-corruption and anti-crime campaigner - and the Wood royal commission, 10 years on Holding judgement