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Italian playwright Ugo Betti once penned an observation about fate and destiny that fits the mesmerising films Mal and I wached on the long weekend - that soulful Indian film Before Rain and the powerul story Doubt and a film which David Stratten gave five stars on the weekend Gran Torino, an exchange at the barber captures my Iceberg club manners so well ;-). We wonder but in the end there is always a certain peace in being what one really is, in being that completely. The condemned man has that joy.

Benefit Of Doubt and the Melting-Plot Class Six Decades of Dream and Hope but little reinforment
Sixty years ago, a document of fewer than 1700 words (even less than the Charter 77 of Vaclav Havel fame, gave birth to a dream. As I observed the celebrations and the articles marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, I ponder on this Revolution within the context of "world historical revolutions". Like revolutions, the declaration's words are inspiring. The challenge is enforcement. Words to Honor at Latitude East!

The Uiversal Declaratin of Human Rights proclaimed by UN in Dec 1948, the year Lidka was born, envisioned a world that respected the dignity of every human beings.However as we know these days only the executives know what dignity stands for at work, the rest of us a powerless slaves to rules and more rules. One of the articles 26.1 states that everyone has the right to education. Directed by Laurent Cantet, the film Class follows a year in the life of a French schoolteacher working in a tough multi-cultural section of Paris. Based on a best-selling autobiographical novel by François Begaudeau, who plays the main character, "The Class" is brought alive by the performances of the non-professional actors playing the students. One of the hottest films of the year was watched by John and Patricia Azarias who each speak eight languages. Bob and Helena Carr who also have interest in education were also at the Paddignton Verona cinema on Australia Day or the New Year of the Ox (I see you've brought home a kangaroo). However, I am not sure how good Carr's French really is and whether the reference of students disliking politicians was fully appreciated by the ex pollies in the crowd.
Laurent Cantet cast real students and teachers in The Class, his piercing docudrama about a melting-pot middle school in Paris. The French director was convinced it was the only way to make the movie realistic. They say what they really mean ...
So many young professional actors are artificial. Also, I wanted to improvise and I thought it would be easier to do with actual students. The head of “The Class” is played by Francois Begaudeau, whose autobiographical novel about his teaching experience inspired Cantet to make the film. Begaudeau, who co-wrote the screenplay, is a youthful teacher challenging his restless students to think, read and write in a rough environment that’s not exactly conducive to learning. Laurent Cantet’s realist movie exceeds two hours and remains confined to the four cold war type multicultural walls of a school ... "The Class" ("Entre les Murs")We wanted to capture the energy and unpredictability
The film reflects issues that society has to face, even if it doesn’t want to look at them. How can school help integrate children into society? How do children relate to adults? How do you build a community with people from so many different backgrounds?

• At Cannes, “The Class” was the first French film to win the Palme d’Or in 21 years Fleshing out the characters; [ wiki sky; Mark Thomas, a regular on the British comedy circuit, has a keen eye for the absurdities of modern life: and what could be more absurd than a globalised economy which provides rich people and powerful corporations with an opt out card marked TAX HAVENS . Cull bankers, invade Jersey . . a cutting edge agenda for 2009 ]
• • With the economy close to actually starting to shrink, the former governor of the Reserve Bank has pinned the blame for the financial turmoil on executives who took excessive risks to secure multi-million dollar bonuses Huge executive bonuses broke economy ; Mullenweg's WordPress has become the No. 2 blogging platform behind Google's Blogger, signing up 10,000 new bloggers daily. WordPress creator Mullenweg is many bloggers' best friend ;
• • • Agency analyst Russell Tice shed new light on the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying last week when he told MSNBC that the NSA blended credit card transaction records with wiretap data to keep tabs on thousands of Americans NSA Whistleblower: Grill the CEOs on Illegal Spying

Coda: At the iceberg on Australia multicultural flags flew above the Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Japanese, Ausie teams. The Ausie teamand Scottish teams won - Appreciations to Penni and familia who let me swim with the tyre and hopelessly falling off surf board - but at trivia Mal and I did help ;-) Ravisi is north from the iceberg!

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Australia Day, also known as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day and Invasion Day, is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, marking the start of British colonisation of Australia. In 2008 AD a trio of Oscar-winning Australian actors have added a touch of glamour to an Australia Day luncheon in Sydney. Actors Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush joined NSW Premier Nathan Rees and a host of Australia Day ambassadors at Sydney's Darling Harbour on Friday. Oscar winners celebrate Australia Day

Australia and the Boy from Buzz
Brandon Walters: the boy from Oz

Language is very powerful: True blue bash The Book of Proverbs
ECONOMISTS, always fond of metaphors, often say credit is the "lifeblood" of the economy alongside the "beating heart" of the banking system …

Australia Day - why not have two metaphoes?
The Book of Proverbs (Chapters 12 & 18) teaches that words can play a decisive role, whether for good or evil. They can be a destructive as sword thrusts or the means of healing. Temperate language is essential in the process we are now engaged in, if there is to be progress. Intemperate language is rarely constructive. Vilification and demonisation are well known techniques which may seem to be expedient in regard to the mobilisation and shaping of domestic public opinion or some other narrow political objective when simple facts are not helpful or sufficient. In order to bless, excommunicate, christen, pronounce guilty, call the base runner out, bid three no-trumps, or declare war, it is not sufficient for any old speaker to say to the hearer “I bless”, “I excommunicate”, etc. One must have a position within blogging community like Kevin …

‘The rich are unlike you and me….” the novelist/social critic F. Scott Fitzgerald was supposed to have uttered in frustration over the crass insensitivity and arrogance of the moneyed class in the midst of the Great Depression. Almost directly proportional to the rate of joblessness, foreclosures and credit crunches which rented most Americans in the ’30s was the rate of wasteful extravagance displayed by this class as they retreated to enjoy themselves behind gated houses and country clubs. If this kind of duality sounds familiar, it is. The “sins” of the ’30s are back to haunt us almost eight decades after—and if we don’t watch out, with more toxicity and devastating effect than in Fitzgerald’s time.Yes, sir. The rich are really something else. And, judging from the reactions of each and every country to the enveloping global financial tsunami, in the end the rich may get even richer and the poor poorer when all the coping measures and stimulus plans shall have been put in place. That is the supreme irony in this meltdown. Those who have caused it in the first place through a combination of mindless deregulation and reckless banking practices may end up keeping their loot, so to speak, and passing the burden of recovery to the millions of taxpayers out there who are already reeling from the downturn.

• Winning Ugly Together; [It would be an easy task to taint wiki sky; Mark Thomas, a regular on the British comedy circuit, has a keen eye for the absurdities of modern life: and what could be more absurd than a globalised economy which provides rich people and powerful corporations with an opt out card marked TAX HAVENS . Cull bankers, invade Jersey . . a cutting edge agenda for 2009 ]
• · Book review: 'Power without Responsibility' focuses on ministerial staffers and their close political and personal affiliations with ministers. Ministerial staff have become a threat to good policy advice; Madoff, Talansky, Merkin, Olmert, Netanyahu, Adelson, one-time top GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associate Adam Kidan, Rahm Emanuel, and all their comrades in Washington, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, London, Ottawa, and Paris brings to mind the Hebrew saying “ba’al ha’mea ba’al ha’dea” or “the one with the money calls the shots” or even more telling, “he who has the gold makes the rules. Calling the shots; Is Madoff the tip of a money laundering pyramid in Israel?
• · Memories of communism … Marian Gula East Champion of Truth; It would also be good if they stopped referring to tax havens as low tax jurisdictions. They’re not. They’re promoters of regulatory abuse behind a veil of secrecy - which is something quite different - and tax is just one of the areas in which they undermine democratic governments in fulfilling their mandates. West Champions of Truth; In a year that will shape the future of the global economy, we look at the names to watch in 2009 List of Names
• · · FIRST Gordon Brown, then Barack Obama, now a fictional character is having a pop at the Isle of Man! One of the most famous modern day fictional crime fighters has been tackling a case with links to the Island. Isle; Seven Pounds in the Fin Review. The first 45 minutes of this enigmatically titled film starring Will Smith (the man who seems ideally suited to play Barack Obama, when the time comes) is baffling and inscrutable. It's a kind of abstract expressionist mosaic that hovers between pretension and intrigue. Smith plays Ben Thomas, an Internal Revenue Service agent, and his behaviour seems, at first, mercurial, explicable only to himself. The role requires quite an acting range as Thomas encounters the seven people whose lives he is going to change. We know very little about him, what motivates him or anything that might give us an inkling of his background. He's existential but only just. What we come to know is that he's on a mission of self-redemption and has chosen seven worthy and deserving characters to assist him in a kind of Operation Wickenby in reverse, but without the need for seized laptops or exotic tax havens. Drama of Seven Pounds of Flesh: Story from the heart that keeps giving
• · · · Satyam Computer Services chairman Ramalinga Raju has resigned after saying he falsified earnings and assets, prompting a collapse in the stock of India's fourth-largest software-services provider. Qantas, which has exposure to Satyam Computer Services, said its business risk from an information technology contract with the company is "manageable". Satyam, which means "truth" in Sanskrit, slumped a record 78% in Mumbai trading. This is a black day for India ; Should we publish an annual list of the country's 10 highest tax-payers? Or make each citizen's tax return public? Neither is as crazy as it may sound, and both ideas have been adopted overseas. They should be part of a meaningful debate in Australia about tax. Stranger than F(i)action
• · · · · Ttips on better management of your social networking. LinkedIn etiquette: five dos and don'ts / Facebook etiquette: five dos and don'ts ; Most swimmers would know Terry 'Tex' Parsons. If you don't, all you need to know is that he is a pom, a loudmouth and can't swim. That combination led him to take on a bet after a few jars that could well be the end of him. On Sunday in January 2009 AD at 10.30am Tex attempted to swim the bay...and back. Many people joined Bergers on the pool deck for what was certainly a spectacle, a pathetic spectacle, but still worth a BBQ on the pool deck Not waving, socially drowning
• · · · · · Ten Stupid Things Managers Do To Screw Up Performance Appraisal ; On a recent memorable occasion, Gabbie, Mal and MD, were exposed to the performance of Shakespeare as it goes from strength to strength. The Complete Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)) is a parody of the plays written by William Shakespeare with all of them being performed (in shortened form) during the show by only three actors 37 plays in 97 minutes Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't. The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool A dish fit for the gods

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They came to witness history. For some, the wait that began before dawn and ended as dusk announced its chilling approach was a new beginning. Or a turning point. But they all wanted to be there for history and for posterity. It was a night when it didn't seem to matter that the temperature was below freezing and the wind was cutting through the thickest overcoats. A night when it began to sink in that the once unthinkable had happened in America. And for once, the stars and their bling were overawed or eclipsed … Internet into overdrive as millions express Obama hopes: We feel that he is an inspiring figure

Hope Over Fear Obama should bring out the best in all of us
A New Era Of Responsibility? The Conundrum That Is Barack Obama

Emotions matter. People talk about hope and optimism as if they are fake, false things; phantasms that have nothing to do with the real world. Yet what historian would write about war without talking about the emotions of the time - fear, hatred, envy, revenge and, sometimes, the urge for peace? How can you understand the rise and fall of stockmarkets without comprehending the role of fear, greed and crowd psychology?

• ANALYSIS: Obama aims to involve entire US in economic turnaround --- 'Emotions matter. The hope created by Obama is a real and useful commodity . .; [Hey Google captures all analysis: Americans have high hopes for the presidency of Barack Obama, and the United States is being swept by a wave of optimism ; One of my favorite books is F. G. Bailey’s unjustly neglected masterpiece Humbuggery and Manipulation: The Art of Leadership Another Presidential Inaugural Speech ; This can only go so far. No government can ultimately rely on the printing press to keep everything pushing along. But I'll leave the last word to Lord Skidelsky: The crisis has rightly led to a revival of interest in Keynes. But he was a moralist as well as an economist. He believed that material wellbeing is a necessary condition of the good life, but that beyond a certain standard of comfort, its pursuit can produce corruption, both for the individual and for society. Key Ness ]
• · The most important thing in sport is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. 15 memorable quotes from Election 2008; As he assumed the presidency, Barack Obama declared that it was time to "set aside childish things," to put away "petty grievances," "worn-out dogmas" and "stale political arguments." He promised a new era of responsibility – suggesting that what has come before him was irresponsibility. Analysis: Obama's Speech
• · During World War II, George Orwell was unable to find a publishing house willing to publish Animal Farm, and several of them acknowledged that it was because they were uncomfortable with the provocative content (i.e., what they perceived as being criticism of Stalin at a time when the West considered the Russians a crucial ally). Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban. How will the David Gregory theory of journalism apply to the Obama administration?; Last winter, I asked a national political correspondent I know about the media and Barack Obama - was it really as far in the tank for lanky Illinois Senator as it appeared to be? Yeah, he said. And the reason was simple: "Obama is a growth industry." Will Media Hucksters Wreck A Great American Story? They're Trying...
• · · In the meantime, one enterprising blogger has started a campaign to link the words "Cheerful Achievement" to Obama's biography. Sounds good. Obama Googlebombed; For the hard right, inauguration day was an occasion to keep bashing Obama, but serious conservatives are warming to him Conservative pundits don't quite know what to make of Barack ...
• · · · Obama is in the White House but mama still complaining about money because of this thing called the recession. Who Should Obama Look to for Advice?: Jimmy Carter ; Obama outlaws torture, rendition flights and secret jails run by CIA Hopes for the Obama Presidency
• · · · · it is hard to imagine what world would look like without the small and shrinking number of people who engage in painstaking, firsthand research in order to separate the truth from the body of supposed facts, and who keep the rest of us honest. What Will 2009 Bring for Journalism?; Most Americans don’t think of their government as an empire, but in fact the United States has been steadily expanding its control of overseas territories since the turn of the twentieth century. The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed, by Ivan Eland; Our Jewish past is largely a tragedy, and the state of Israel is a continuation of that tragedy. Should Jews leave Israel?
• · · · · · Yes he can: Obama to keep BlackBerry; Everyone was blogging about Tuesday's inauguration -- even the people who were putting it on. A blogger's inauguration

Missing Soviet Holidays? Each to His own :-)

Looking at the calendar, I’m confused – it’s neither Valentines Day nor April Fool’s...
I immigrated to the United States 20 years ago. I still miss the Soviet holidays

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It has been over a year since The Time magazine published its feature The 25 Best Financial Blogs. A great deal has changed. Some of the blogs on the list are gone or no longer have regular posts. Others have grown and become better. Financial blogs end up being either labors of love or ways to promote small money management or paid newsletter businesses. It would seem to be a tough way to make a living. The 25 Best Financial Dragons

We should expect the worst, but hope for the best Living well is the best revenge
In December, Fast Company published an article called "The Most Influential Women in Web 2.0" featuring about a dozen amazing women who work in the Web 2.0 world. The list included BlogHer founders Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins, and Lisa Stone. Kaliya Hamlin, who is the founder of She's Geeky, a women and technology conference taking place in Mountain View, CA on January 30-31st was also on the list.

But as with any "best of" or "most this or that" list, it's bound to be incomplete. So, when Lynne d Johnson from Fast Company asked me to blog a list, I thought I'd create a nonprofit technology category and acknowledge the work of these awesome women:

• Women in Nonprofit Technology Who Rock ; [Jeff Jarvis, founding editor of Entertainment Weekly and journalism professor at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, is probably best known as a new media pundit, via his Buzzmachine.com blog and a column in London’s Guardian. LJ Talks to Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? ; There are lots of other aspects of blogging tools that have helped to shape the practice of blogging that I haven’t gone into here - RSS, for example, or the practice of making public corrections - but this gives you a grounding. Of course, there are plenty of blogs out there that ignore many of these conventions and are blogs nonetheless Ignorant blogs ]
• · Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz runs a blog offered in 11 different languages. It is available in English, French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The blog, created in 2004, is well known among IT industry workers around the world. Not only does it provide information on the latest technologies and industry trends, but is also used to flag the company's latest announcements. Schwartz is known as the CEO Blogger. The Emergence of the 'Power Blogger' ; WHICH IS MORE DANGEROUS, a gun or a swimming pool? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? These were some of the questions raised in Steven Levitt’s best selling book, Freakonomics, which successfully tapped the public’s growing interest in economics minus the complex equations prevailing in most of its literature. ‘Freak’ economics: Economics sans complexity
• · Regardless of the occasional language brilliance that comes pouring out of these fingertips, I don’t consider myself much of an intellectual. I peruse some of those so-called trashy celebrity magazines and read blogs, some written by those that remain anonymous. OK, maybe you don’t regularly read reviews of professional wrestling programs via a blog, but don’t judge me. Attention bloggers: It’s time to make you famous; Blogging couple with quadruplets wins award
• · · Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honor to belong to all those categories and now especially the last. The issue of credibility gets complicated here. For a professional journalist, the stamp of a name and affiliation means everything. For a sometimes anonymous blogger publishing from the comfort of a bedroom, this is not always the case.
But essentially, these citizen journalists champion the idea of free speech. It's refreshing evidence of a rejuvenated public interest in reporting the news. Champions for the idea of free speech ; Times responds to blogger’s claims of ‘cut-and-paste’ journalism
• · · · Tom Mangan works nights as a copy editor and page designer at the Mercury News. He spends a couple of his off hours each day betting on his idea of journalism's future. How to Make Your Blog a Paying Business ; Blogging's Not Journalism—It's Therapy ; With the rise of online media, from YouTube to Facebook, WordPress to the New York Times, journalism has expanded over the course of the last decade into a new era. “Journalism” may not be guaranteed work all of the time, but it is most certainly in my eyes one of the main focuses of future careers for students. Journalism vs. blogging: the present and the future
• · · · · Jay Rosen, the founder of Assignment Zero, a project where journalism is run by the public rather than the media, seems to be re-affirming his beliefs about citizen journalism and new media.Rosen has long believed that citizen journalism promotes social democracy. Recently, he published an essay on how the Internet is weakening the authority of the press that further expands on his idea. Citizen Journalism as Legitimate Threat to Big Media Dragons? ; Salam Pax, the 'Baghdad Blogger,' is back in Iraq -- and Twittering
• · · · · · A chance encounter by an alert blogger in Taiwan with a wire story in The China Post in early October began a chain of events worldwide that led to uncovering a literary hoax in New York -- and the cancellation of an "Oprah-approved" book. True story. Read on. How 'citizen journalism' blogs uncovered a Holocaust hoax ; THE hoaxer who duped historian Keith Windschuttle into printing specious science in the respected right-wing magazine Quadrant is a Melbourne writer and self-described urban farmer. Too often we give unjustified credibility to bloggers who are, at best, practicing amateur journalism or simplistic punditry. Quadrant hoaxer an anti-GM warrior ; Corvida Raven, author of the blog SheGeeks.net, made the Fast Company list of "The Most Influential Women In Technology: The Bloggers." Here, she shares her sources of inspiration. 6 Sources of Inspiration for Tech Bloggers

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Shaw PS - showing the way? Ian McPhee of Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) fame, noted last year My presentation today is intended to provide a broad perspective on public sector governance to act as a 'spring board' for the more specific aspects of governance that will be addressed in later sessions. I mainly refer to governance in the context of agencies (where the CEO generally reports to a Minister), rather than statutory authorities (where the CEO generally reports to a board) given the more limited information available relating to agency governance. PDF format Sense of Purpose

We should expect the worst, but hope for the best New Media Dragons Bring Out Best Of Traditional Journalism
Arianna Huffington, creator of the popular blog, The Huffington Post, believes that both old and new media are joining forces to bring out the best in one another.

According to Ms. Huffington, bloggers are growing in stature in the world of traditional media, while journalists are increasingly moving into the world of blogging. "There's this real convergence, where basically you found that the best and most accurate rose to the top, whether it originated from Time magazine or from Nate Silver's 538.com, which did not exist before the election," she told Reuters, referring to the 538.com Web site that gathered and analyzed political polling data during the 2008 election."The convergence is going to keep growing, as we saw in this election period, two years and four years from now, I'm sure," she added.

• They have to share the power.; [Love and Consequences etc Famous Literary Hoaxes: Whatever you do, don't blame Oprah; It's the latest story that touched, and betrayed, the world Oprah Fooled Again ]
• · In media circles, there is a joke about facts that are too good to check. This week Oprah Winfrey and the New York publishing industry stumbled on yet another unverified account in the form of a Holocaust survivor who said his future wife had helped him stay alive while he was imprisoned as a child in a Nazi concentration camp by throwing apples over the fence to him. Nearly three years ago Ms. Winfrey was famously duped by James Frey, the author of “A Million Little Pieces,” his memoir of drug addiction and recovery in which he embellished several details; for example, he wrote that he had spent nearly three months in jail when in fact he had been held for a few hours. An outraged Ms. Winfrey rebuked Mr. Frey on television, telling him that he “betrayed millions of readers.” As Another Memoir Is Faked, Trust Suffers ; We run out and buy these books and then we get kicked in the teeth
• · Woman's struggles, cancer blog connect with others worldwide Local woman's blog has global impact; How do you make a go of blogging?
• · · These same media, however, have turned a blind eye to much more significant literary hoaxes. These include Alex Haley's counterfeit "Roots," Rigoberta Menchu's Nobel Prize-winning fraud, "I Rigoberta," Margaret Mead's fanciful "Coming of Age in Samoa," and leftist superstar Edward Said's repeated claims of being a Palestinian refugee. Memoir, meet the fact checker. Fact-checker, meet the memoir. ; Bigger frauds to fry than Rosenblat
• · · · I went straight to Google and typed in Fake Memoirs. Like a mushroom that sprouted up overnight, a stub on Herman Rosenblat had popped up at the top Wikipedia’s list of notorious authors of fake memoirs and journals Laurie Fendrich, a painter who lives and works in New York; How wonderful to have no scratches on your face. Yet difficult, too, I imagine. How pleasant it must be to be pleasant. How lovely to be lovely.
• · · · · The Bush administration's decision to drop planned anti-money laundering (AML) regulations aimed at the $2 trillion hedge fund industry has been denounced as "inexplicable, ill-timed and unwise" by Democrat Senator Carl Levin. Withdrawal of hedge fund AML rules "inexplicable"; ANDREW PEACOCK who was once married to a Rossiter girl. had a special friendship with Shirley MacLaine in 1978 but Australia's relations with the United States were far from intimate. Foreign affairs with a spicy tang; The holiday season can be a bit of a bummer for die-hard theater lovers Song Lyrics and Memoirs for All Seasons

• · · · · · Carrie Fisher won’t let you feel sorry for her, which is greatly to her credit in this age of needy, tell-all celebrity memoirs, but neither can she relax or stop joking. She writes: “If my life wasn’t funny it would just be true, and that is unacceptable… The title of Carrie Fisher’s funny, sardonic little memoir is a bit misleading. Drinking seems to have been the least of her problems. Pills were more her thing, and for a while hallucinogens. As a teenager, she dropped so much acid that her parents called in the greatest LSD expert they knew: Cary Grant. Princess Leia’s Wit Tames the Dark Side: When two celebrities mate, something like me is the result ; In the end, one is never really sure what one is supposed to be taking from this book: whether one is reading the memoirs of someone who has shared a significant number of curious, thought provoking moments with the religious, or whether one is meant to be engaging in something like an 'edgy quest for meaning'. In any case, the experience may well leave one with their own sense of 'nothing'. Since Nietzsche wrote of the death of God, the question of valuing 'value' itself has been a central concern of western thinking

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Where were you be counting down to the New Year? Thousands of people said hello to the new year at the bay and harbour of fire in Sydney, but the best view did come from Gilbert Street ;-)

The traditional telephone call to wish family and friends a 'Happy New Year' is increasingly being replaced by a text message and blog entries.

Happy New Year to Gabbie (Rory) and Sasha of Roxy fame

So --- Stastlivy Novy Rok to my sisters and families in Prague and Poprad and Vrbov

Auntie Zofka Gerard Lea Marie Cecile in France -- ""Bonne Année"" auntie Otta's family in Germany -- ""Gutes Neues Jahr""

Holidaymakers ""Hauoli Makahiki Hou"" Kevin of Irish fame -- ""Aith-bhliain fé mhaise dhuit""; Luciano and Caterina of Italian fame -- ""Buon Capo d'Auno"" Steve in Japan -- ""Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu"" ING partners in Netherlands -- ""Gelukkig Nieuwjaar"" Norway -- Christofer and co from Poland -- ""Szczesliwego Nowego Roku"" Portugal -- ""Feliz Ano Novo"" Begonia in Spain -- ""Feliz Año Nuevo"" Ton Ling family -- ""Gung Hay Fat Choy ""

Lanai Vasek often wonders just how many people wake up on New Years day with a hangover and a handful of regrets. More often than not we celebrate the New Year slurring resolutions we’ll never keep, and promising ourselves “this year will be different”. Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde once said ”Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account”. My New Year's resolution is not to pay attention to bad resolutions ...

2008 achieved a depth of realism that Hollywood could not imagine ... New Year Bring Out Best Of Resolutions
The powerless understand powerul better that vice versa which is why they are pressured to be silent. Some brave souls among us sometime try to break the code and share stories which tell us what the emperor is really like with no clothes on.

How was 2008 for you? It is bound to go down in history as a big year, not least thanks to economy but each year is really framed in terms of characters we come across be it successful fliers like Pappadopolous, or to be sure Shaw. Because it is people who make things happen. There are many heros as well as villains in my life. I will probably never know the names of many of my villains. Which character in the government thought up the idea of giving bags of money to the banks rather than to people?
Every man and woman carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place known or unknown actual or visionary. For myself the most beautiful place on earth is where heros like Mal place their feett be it TASSIE or Bronte ;-)
According to Ron: Well, 2008 turned out to be even tougher than we feared. But, hey, we made it through. So now comes 2009, with all the gloomy predictions. It's understandable if your "Happy New Year" wish ends with more of a ? than a ! this time around.
Is there a light at the end of this tunnel? Don't know, because we can't see the end yet, or so the economists tell us. And now the entire nation has slipped into the downhill tube that Michigan entered about seven years ago. So even if you could sell your house and get out of Michigan, there's really no economic hot spot where you can go. Face it folks. Our only option is to make this place what we know it can be, what it should be.
Somehow, all this adversity has to become opportunity. And that is entirely possible. Why? Because more and more people in Michigan have stopped looking in the rearview mirror and started figuring out the road ahead. It has taken awhile -- and a lot of pain -- but we understand now that what was will not be again, and our focus is finally shifting to what's next. ...
History and literature are filled with stories of people who stood on the brink of disaster and found themselves doing things they never thought they would have to do, could do, or would ever want to do. They stopped waiting for help, stopped hoping for things to go back to the way they were and changed the reality on the ground. They put aside old enmities and pulled together -- not by choice but because they had no other choice.We all know people who have survived some kind of personal disaster -- an arrest, illness, divorce, job loss, what have you -- and who can look back on it and say, "At the time, I thought my life was over, but if it hadn't happened, I never would have changed. Yes, it was terrible, it hurt, but today I am better for it."

• 2008 turned out to be even tougher than we feared; [ The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers ... as told by Erich Fromm in Man for Himself; Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers ; Nobody ever said that work was fun, but it beats death plan in the waiting room of God. From backwater of the High Tatra mountains to parliamentary intrigue in the city of wild men to Masterminds of the offshore tax schemes]

An excellent leader has three qualities: a love for the people, moral and ethical integrity, and courage to take a stand and position even when there is resistance to change. Martin Luther King, Jr. had all three qualities. Without one of these qualities, a leader is handicapped. Without two of these qualities, he is doomed to failure. With none of these qualities, tyrants can exist, but not leaders.
-Harry Holleywood

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Dave Edison whispered in my ears on a sunny nut at Stanley: I'm desperately trying to figure out why kamikaze pilots wore helmets ...



The medicinal poppy industry has now been operating in Tasmania for over 30 years, and the State produces approximately 50% of the world’s legal poppy crop. Tasmania seems a little careless of its cash crop; the poppies are defended from smugglers by a waist-high fence and a lame instruction to Keep Out. Tasmania is a major producer of the world's legal poppy crop

Hasta la vista baby & Fairy Penquins There is no denying that Tassie is filled with magic
As we clocked almost 7000km across mainland and the Tassie landscapes I heard someone state: Have you ever noticed Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a moron.

Blink in Tasmania and you miss something... If you're a nature lover and you haven't yet made it to Bruny Island, you really need to do something about that. History suggests its pink granite cliffs, outlandish forests and chaste beaches so beguiled European navigators that they lost track of time and purpose. Discover seals, Albatross, quolls, echidnas and other rare creatures ...There are only two species of monotreme known to science: the duckbill platypus and the echidna, which is a small spiny anteater.

As luck would have it, we were fortunate to follow all the suggestions from the Tassie Tourist Guru - Walking Encyclopaedia Trish
We did all the things she suggested and even more as we came across amazing characters in the Apple Island but now fast becoming the Berrie, Lavender and Poppy world ...

Arrive on Spirit of Tasmania to Devonport



Suggest you drive directly on disembarking in the direction of LaTrobe and go to the Anvers (Belgian) Chocolate Factory for breakfast. It’s on the right hand side of the road, about 15 minutes drive out of Devonport, in an old Federation House…and has hot chocolate to die for!!!! There is also a small museum dedicated to chocolate.

Other interests nearby:

Reliquaire – an incredible shop (huge and packed full of the most extraordinary things) in the Main St of LaTrobe…and if Josef is interested in Woodchopping – then David Foster (Australia’s most decorated and famous wood chopper) has his “Axemans Hall of Fame” there too!

Other food considerations in the area at Elizabeth Town are Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm (very nice for lunch! Ashgrove Cheese Factory

But if they don’t fit into your plans first day, you can always plan to stop there on the way BACK to the Spirit on your last day. And if you find yourself driving through Burnie (not attractive!) – look out for Creative Paper (an eco-paper making concern, but so interesting…next door to a commercial paper mill! And there is a cool Whiskey Distillery up the road (they can give you directions) – which has a very trendy restaurant attached.

Suggest you head across North-West Coast to Stanley…which is one of my favourite towns. Cute cottages, great Tourist Park…or if you want something upmarket you could try @VDL (but pre-book)…So be careful, it is a gorgeous place…and might get under your skin! Trevor and Kathy have a wonderful Touch of Wood

Things to do: The Bistro in the Stanley Pub has just won a “Best Bistro in Australia” award…and everybody eats there! Visit Ye Olde Sweet Shop and say “hello” (who also have cottage accommodation and run 4WD tours, and Platypus tours)

Climb “the Nut” – Tassie’s answer to Ayers Rock! Visit Dismal Swamp Enjoy the magnificent scenery of this particular area!

Then to Cradle Mountain and its Lodge where you will see King Billy Pines - majestic trees:



Apart from the walks in the National Park Visit the Wilderness Gallery (if you are interested in photography) Devils@Cradle – if you want to get up close and personal with Tassie Devils, and help the good folk here in their effort to save the devil.

Stay in Strahan. Take a Gordon River Cruise (takes most of a day) Go down to the Wharf in the evening and watch the play “The Ship That Never Was” – written, produced and acted by Strahans resident thespian!

Take the West Coast Wilderness Railway to Queenstown (takes most of another day, but includes return to Strahan by coach) Or, check out Piners & Miners – which I have not tried yet (new this year), but sounds great!

Head back towards Hobart. Do stop in Queenstown for a look around – mining town
Fabulous old pubs with wonderful carved staircases (for gentry) alongside plain ones (for servants)…great history! And stop and enjoy the walks (you’ll see the signs as you drive along) in the World Heritage Area on road from Queenstown to Derwent Bridge.

MUST SEE – the Wall just east of Derwent Bridge - amazing sculpting by a local artisan. Head towards Hobart.

If you are there for Saturday – of course there is the famous Salamanca Markets on Sat morning (8.30 – 2.00pm approx) You can also cycle down Mount Wellington (Island Cycle Tours) or kayak with Hobart Paddle.

I like the Botanic Gardens…especially the Sub-Antarctic house – only small, but gives a good idea of life on Macquarie Island!

Cascade Breweries have tours (and they are the oldest Brewery in Tasmania) – but they also have a trendy restaurant and beautiful gardens…and from there you can walk down (quite a scenic way) to the Female Factory (remains of where the women convicts were sent) with Island Fudge (yum!) conveniently placed next door….but would probably have to think about logistics of getting back to your car (maybe take a Hobart taxi number with you?)

Check out the Henry Jones Art Hotel (won lots of awards for top hotel in Australia, etc) – and even if you don’t stay there, you can still have a drink in the Bar, or a coffee in the Atrium! [Lena at Batery Point rocks]

To eat – fish at Fish Frenzy on the Wharf, Italian at Harbour Lights Café (near Salamanca)…very inexpensive with Tassie Dining Card ... For tourist eats (and good food) – the Ball & Chain at Salamanca or the Drunken Admiral next to the Henry Jones Art Hotel. I have heard that the “Laundry”Café is the new “in” place (somewhere in Salamanca) – so if you find it, let me know.

Also have a wander in Battery Point (or even stay there!) – Hobarts equivalent of Paddington…very historic, little cottages (Arthur's circus,the Shippees pub), etc. From Hobart you can also do a day trip to the Huon Valley (or even better – time allowing, stay down there)

If you want something really different and seriously (but trendily) eco – check out Huon Bush Retreats. But you need to have a look on website first – as it is hidden in the bush, so may not suit everybody. (see page 20 & page 40 of Discover Tasmania book) Holm Hill Winery is a popular stop (and lunch stop) in the Huon

Tahune Airwalk – a bit of a drive, but you can wander through the tree-tops (elevated walk) with a cantilever or two, and this year they have also added a couple of swinging bridges. Experience wilderness from a different level! Then on the other side of Hobart, of course there is Port Arthur – but I would suggest that you drive and stay, rather than make it a day trip from Hobart.

[Like the good ancient Franklin River or the Nelson Falls, the Russell Falls (inside the first national park) the purity of the water is just amazing...]



Stop in Richmond on the way – a beautifully preserved Georgian village (and the nearest to England that you will get in Tassie…except it has a convict history). (Pick your own berries/ cherries to your heart's content at Sorrell.

(Ross was also wonderful ...) I love Stewarts Bay Lodge (has a great Restaurant too…funny that!)

You can walk around the bay to Port Arthur site from there. Do the Ghost Tour – as your first visit to the site. And then the NEXT day go back and enjoy it from a historic perspective.

We do have an excellent value package in the Discover Tasmania book page 15 = $135 per person per night for accommodation, evening meal, ghost tour and b’fast at the Port Arthur Motor Inn (which is a standard no frills Motor Inn, clean, comfortable, but not special – so depends what you want).

From there head up the East Coast to Freycinet. I have a big soft spot for Diamond Island Resort (Bicheno) – because it backs on to a little penguin colony, and you can hear them calling at night, and if you get up early enough, watch them all head out to sea. [How lucky to get so close to fairy penquines at Bisheno no photos as they are very sensitive to the camera flash but this is their home]



[The pink granite wears russet lichens, the shell sands are a virgin white and the turquoise trim of the Tasman Sea is a lure for exploers like Mal; until they test the temperature ;-)]

They also do a great tour ($20 per person) at dusk, and apart from learning heaps about penguins, you really do get very close, as they waddle past on their way home to there nests.

Or you can take it easier with Freycinet Sea Cruises ... And you can enjoy the wonderful views from the Bistro (or whatever they call their non-fine-dining Restaurant) at Freycinet Lodge…so worth stopping in, even if you are not staying there.

If you chose to stay in Swansea (south of Freycinet Peninsula), instead of Bicheno – it is a really nice little town…so whatever you do in this area, you will enjoy it!

Then keep driving north to St Helens. Do go up Elephant Pass to the Pancake House at the top! (Not even the rustling of the bush, with its society of wombats, wallabies, possums and quolls, kept us from sleep, but the thin walls of Tidal Waters in the Room 23 did ...]

St Helens is the base of the Bay of Fires (just been voted the No 1 destination spot by Lonely Planet) [Bay of Fire: Garden of Eden Indeed!]



My pick of the accommodation is the Character Cottages (may be Bay of Fires Character Cottages, or St Helens Character Cottages?). The views were unbelievable! I have been desperate to go back and stay there ever since…so if you do stay, I will be extremely jealous.

The drive from St Helens to Launceston is lovely, lush, green rolling foothills.

Make sure you go to St Columba Falls…and you can stop in at Pyngana Cheese Factory on the way, and take a little snack to enjoy there in the wilderness!

The Lavender Farm at Nabowla (Bridestowe) is the largest in the southern hemisphere…you will be able to smell it well before you see it (mmmmm!)…and this is an excellent time to visit, as the lavender will be out in bloom (they cut it January)

And check out Hollybank (approx 20 mins from Launceston) – our latest exciting adventure – swinging through the trees on (seated) flying foxes…to land on cloud-stations up in the trees…the longest span is 370m!!


There is such a wide variety of accommodation in Launceston, I really don’t have a special favourite. But try and stay within walking distance of City Centre/Seaport/Cataract Gorge area, and then you can explore easily.

From there you can also drive along the Tamar Valley Wine Route and visit Seahorse World, and pass the famous Beaconsfield Mine – all this would be a day trip heading north.

But nearby, you also have the lovely little town of Evandale (market on Sunday), and historic Woolmers Estate (which is full of amazing stories and old treasures, and I have been lucky enough to have had a ride around the estate in one of the old vintage cars! Yeah!!) and National Rose Garden is attached to the property.


If there is any time at all left…as you head back to Devonport, the hinterland in Mole Creek is very pretty indeed. They also have fabulous caves – Marakoopa and King Solomon Mines… But by this time you may be heading for a Raspberry Farm lunch on the way back to Devonport

• Highly Recommended: Take a full day tour from Hobart or drive yourself to Adventure Bay, Bruny Island for our three-hour eco-adventure cruise. Bruny Island is accessible by ferry at Kettering, only 35 minutes drive from Hobart and say Hi to the storyteller extraordinaire Colin (Colliwobbles) A turtle travels only when it sticks its neck out ; [See everything, overlook a great deal, correct a little; Tassie Temptations ]

• · Discover Tasmania If You Can't Be Good, Be Lucky ; Great Touch of Wood
• · ; Seals at Bruny Island noted: I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it

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The secret of a good blog entry is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible :-)

There are many blogs about Tasmania. Back in 2003 I used to read the Tasmanian dolebludger blog (by Meika VonSamorzewski)

Only Tassie pubs like Shippies at Batery Point provide in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat Van Diemen Land: Is Tasmania Really A Part Of Australia?
It is believed that the island was joined to the mainland until the end of the last glacial period approximately 10,000 years ago.
Much of the island is composed of Jurassic dolerite intrusions (upwellings of magma) through other rock types, sometimes forming large columnar joints. Tasmania has the world's largest areas of dolerite, with many distinctive mountains and cliffs formed from this rock type. The central plateau and the southeast portions of the island are mostly dolerite. Mount Wellington above Hobart is a good example, showing distinct columns known as the Organ Pipes. In the southwest, Precambrian quartzites are formed from very ancient sea sediments and form strikingly sharp ridges and ranges, such as Federation Peak or Frenchman's Cap. In the northeast and east, continental granites can be seen, such as at Freycinet, similar to coastal granites on mainland Australia. In the northwest and west, mineral rich volcanic rock can be seen at Mt. Read near Rosebery, or at Mt. Lyell near Queenstown. Also present in the south and northwest is limestone with some magnificent caves.

Tasmania is an Australian island and state of the same name. It is located 240 kilometres (150 mi) south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait. The state of Tasmania includes the island of Tasmania and other surrounding islands. Tasmania has an estimated population of 494,520 (March 2008)[4] and an area of 68,401 square kilometres (26,410 sq mi).

Tasmania is promoted as the Natural State and the "Island of Inspiration"[5] owing to its large and relatively unspoiled natural environment. Formally, almost 37% of Tasmania is in reserves, National Parks and World Heritage Sites.[6] The island is 364 kilometres (226 mi) long from the northernmost point to the southernmost point and 306 kilometres (190 mi) from west to east.

The first reported sighting of Tasmania by a European was on 24 November 1642, by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Captain James Cook also sighted the island in 1777, and numerous other European seafarers made landfalls, adding a colourful array to the names of topographical features.

The first settlement was by the British at Risdon Cove on the eastern bank of the Derwent estuary in 1803, by a small party sent from Sydney, under Lt. John Bowen for the purpose of preventing the French from claiming the island. An alternative settlement was established by Captain David Collins 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the south in 1804 in Sullivan's Cove on the western side of the Derwent, where fresh water was more plentiful. The latter settlement became known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, later shortened to Hobart, after the British Colonial Secretary of the time, Lord Hobart. The settlement at Risdon was later abandoned.

The early settlers were mostly convicts and their military guards, with the task of developing agriculture and other industries. Numerous other convict-based settlements were made in Van Diemen's Land, including secondary prisons, such as the particularly harsh penal colonies at Port Arthur in the southeast and Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast.

Van Diemen's Land was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales, with its own judicial establishment and Legislative Council, on 3 December 1825.
• Be careful about Tasmania Devils; Dog owners behind mass penguin kill;

Coda: "The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers."
-Erich Imrich Fromm

Pondering in Tassie about Rose of Bells: It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman in Tassie to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry ...

It is of no benefit to got to bed early to save the candle, if the result is twins ...

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
-- Oscar Wilde


Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year...

Insanity in individuals is something rare, but in groups, parties, nations and expochs, it is the rule ... ach ... Friedrich Nietzsche

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
-- Socrates


She had a rose named after me and she was very flattered. But she was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: 'No good in a bed, but fine against a wall ;-)

I've just learned about her illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial...

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
-- Mark Twain

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure ...

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it ;-)

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Svety Mikulas is busy flying through the bohemian sky delivering goodies for chldren or rotten potatos for some ... and Tomorrow is a day of hopes, dreams and nerves as we cross the Bass Strait on the Spirit of Tasmania The fire of fiction International guide book Lonely Planet has named Tasmania’s Bay of Fires as the hottest travel destination for 2009. Bay of Fires

Cinema AUSTRALIA ….THE WORLD ….
It was with the completion of this “Red Curtain Trilogy” – and after directing a Tony-winning version of Puccini’s La Boheme on Broadway – that Luhrmann began developing a series of epic films, including a project with Leonardo DiCaprio about Alexander the Great. But after two years of intensive research across Jordan, the deserts of Morocco and the jungles of Thailand with his wife and creative partner, Catherine Martin, the project was shelved when Oliver Stone’s Alexander film went into production.

While traveling back to Sydney from Paris, Luhrmann began to imagine a story about a main character who embarks on a great journey that transforms her in a profound way. “It is the issue of transformation that I am most interested in exploring at this time,” the director explains. “I recognize a feeling that exists in me and my generation that at a certain age, you get locked into a pattern of life that will remain constant for the rest of your days – growth simply stops. So I was very interested in the idea of growth and rebirth. Secondly, life in the post-9/11 world has created an unnerving environment in which the future seems unpredictable and precarious. So I was also interested writing a story about characters who live in uncertain and tumultuous times.

• Australia; [Czech Free Marketeer Vaclav Klaus to Become President of European Union = Governments are managed by elites who are beholden to somewhat larger elites for support. Members of the former usually spring from the latter. Whether the nature of rule dictates this sort of cozy arrangement, as pronounced by the Iron Law of Oligarchy, or not, we see this type of tight, inbred elite rule in virtually every society, regardless of its declared ideological commitments and ideals. It’s Who You Know ; Women are natural born leaders, argues author and executive coach Lois P Frankel - if only they'd realise it. Quit girlie nice ]
• · Merrill Lynch estimated in 2003 that more than 85% of all potentially usable business information originates in unstructured form. With the accelerating use of the Internet, the volumes of unstructured data such as blogs, wikis and social networks have also expanded exponentially Using unstructured information to provoke thoughtful decisions,; Bureaucrats running intelligence agencies; inter agency rivalry; political cronyism: they all affect Australia’s preparedness for terrorist attacks. British intelligence service MI6 is tapping the considerable public power of Facebook to implement its latest recruitment drive. Outgoing CIO of the FBI, Zal Azmi, was appointed in 2004 and has led FBI efforts to modernise information technology. "During 9/11, the Bureau didn't have the infrastructure to transmit even a single picture over its external networks," Azmi said. Many processes were grounded in old systems. There were plenty of information technology offices within the FBI, he said - almost one for every division - but they were "stovepipes," not unlike the broader intelligence community Moving technology forward
• · The Looming Threat of Deflation … Decades of consensus that deregulation, privatisation, and free trade are the right way to go have been consigned to the dustbin of history. People must resist the urge to think of unemployment as the end of the world, no matter how difficult it may be. Maintaining a positive attitude is vital. 7 secrets for surviving a layoff in a down economy; There's never been a more incompetent profession working against corporate Australia and the ordinary person in the street than HR management. Get a job! Not with HR
• · · Political buck passing means senior public servants' professional discretion is being exploited to save their political masters’ skins. Politicising the TreasuryInspector General for Tax Administration, US Treasury, 29 August 2008, 23p. "This report presents the results of our review to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is effectively projecting its future human resource needs. This review is one of several audits assessing how the IRS is addressing the Human Capital management challenge A more strategic and consistent approach to estimating retirements and other separations is needed to better plan for future human resource needs ; What is exciting about this Web 2.0 evolution is that there is an energy that comes with this new sense of freedom and connection The virtual gathering experience
• · · · Napoleon reputedly rated luck above other qualities, and the electoral gods have certainly favoured Obama. As dede noted Napolean used to sent three soldiers in different directions and the one who return was the best intel officer as the enemy was not there … With a world in crisis and an economy in a shambles, can Obama make it work? The new CEO of 'America Inc'; Rudd one year on … On blind hope and the awful truth ; If you follow any political blogs, you have experienced how vicious people can be to those who hold different perspectives. It doesn't have to be that way! Online bashing - It doesn't have to be that way!
• · · · · The media landscape is changing with readers flocking to online news sites at the expense of the traditional print media. Newspaper use-by date; Mere moments after the first shots were fired in Mumbai on Wednesday, terror had gone online Bloggers provide raw view of Mumbai attacks
• · · · · · Best Foreign Fiction Of 2008 ; It's all HUMBUG, I tell you, HUMBUG THE BEST HOLIDAY STORY EVER

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You know my old saying...

Connect on your similarities and profit from your differences

Robert of Boonah fame provides the images of a smiley faces . I only need to taste Dial's or June's cooking as well as invading the Sweet Spot and my face dials up a smile
(Gabbie and Katie of Bronte fame had a lovely time with June this week ...)

Regrets? Not if You follow Dragon's Tips Hitting the Sweet Spot and (Yarin) the Maroccan Feast of Randwick
The Sweet Spot Patisserie makes the best spinach triangle 18 Perouse Rd 2031 Randwick. For special orders call Peter and Angela or Paul (02) 9399 3344
Sticky Weddings

Even stickier Christmas parties Moroccan Christmas party

Randwick personality Georgina Safe wrote last month about her former boss who once told her that if she were ever stuck for an idea for a column, she should open a bottle of wine, then put pen to paper. Creativity, name the price

CODA: Love is wonderful the second time around, as the song says. But the housework load is not necessarily lighter or shared more equally in second marriages.Many men in second marriages shape up, becoming the partners their first wives had probably wanted them to be. They share the domestic chores more equally with their second wife than they did with their first ... Husbands better second time around

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A Cold River reviewer and a billionaire investment guru Warren Buffet once observed: It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.

Historical analysis is more than history. It is not just about recording what happened. It is about why it happened and whether it will again. Historical analysis is not just history. It is also analysis. So, it uses the philosophy of causation and the statistical techniques of correlation; with systems theory to understand the effect of feedback. As Santayana has been repeatedly quoted as saying: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, but noting that he meant "A man's memory may almost become the art of continually varying and misrepresenting his past, according to his interests in the present."

Thinking about the Theodore Roosevelt quote from Kevin Roberts’s inspiration post the other day also reminded me of a quotation from a completely different source: the great photographer Cecil Beaton… The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood

Don't Bank On Bankers White-collar crime goes unpunished
Some characters have been railing against idiot bankers for years now. Wall Street was driven by greed, dishonesty, and dishonor.

The salaries paid were obscene and the arrogance amazing. Watching this latest meltdown from neighboring TriBeCa has been horrendous. I don’t really care what happens to the bankers. In fact, I’m more than a little pissed that so many of them have walked away with fat cat bonuses over the last three years and we found no way to get that money back.
What depresses me is what happens to the average person. Many employees at Saatchi & Saatchi have seen their retirement funds decimated by the greed, stupidity, and arrogance of these so-called 'Masters of the Universe'.

• Don't Bank On These Guys; [ I came across colourful characters in cafes this week who shared this link with me they agree too that Australia is Big, Pretty, Arid, and Endless Understanding screenwriting 10 points; Meet Nulla (Brandon Walter), a mixed-race boy who seems to have inherited some magical powers from the aboriginal side of his family. Australia is narrated by Nulla, who speaks in a poetically broken English, and through his eyes and ears the movie takes on the once-upon-a-time vibe of a children's story. Ach and Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman have no trouble generating chemistry Aussies flock to see Baz Luhrmann's Australia ]
• · An interview with this US management thinker and author, looking at his latest book - The new, age of innovation: driving co-created value through global networks An interview with C K Prahald ; Strength is the redeeming virtue in adversity, but modern life has encouraged a nation of self-centred, consumption oriented sheep Think about World Philosophy Day
• · What is exciting about this Web 2.0 evolution is that there is an energy that comes with this new sense of freedom and connection - and companies are rapidly and wildly opening up new possibilities for collaboration.
The virtual gathering experience ; Aside from weeks when idealistic, energetic and quite appealing new political faces get elected to power in large democracies, Kubrick Week on SBS is always one of my favourites Six billion blogs and counting
• · · Currently, in Australia, there are a number of developments suggesting that some of the digital promises and challenges of the past two decades are being addressed. Welcome as these may be, such significant financial investments in resources do not, in and of themselves, herald a revolution and will not necessarily improve educational outcomes. Pdf format Digital promises and challenges ; This report argues that Australia will increasingly have to find its security in a world of power shifts and greater interconnectedness. The paper provides a global overview and considers such issues as US influence, warfare, the proliferation of WMD, terrorism, Iraq and the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Asian security environment, North Asia, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, national security and Australia's strategic options. It also puts forward scenarios of what the world might look like in 2050 to encourage thinking about the possible shape of a more distant world Global jigsaw: ASPI's strategic assessment 2008#
• · · · THIS is an unusual book. It is part biographical, part anecdotal, draws on a long and detailed knowledge of Australia’s financial system, offers some intriguing insights, and mounts a consistent central argument. Essentially, it aims to resurrect Paul Keating’s reputation Unfinished Business: Paul Keating’s Interrupted Revolution; The man who is wearing Pauk Keating’s spray with badge of honour The Hon. JOHN ROBERTSON ; The North Sydney Swimmer’s Inaugural Speech: There have been many people along the way whom I also want to thank: a former President of this Chamber—and who I acknowledge is present tonight—Johno Johnson.
Mikhail Gorbachev, a Nobel laureate and a leader who has seen firsthand the impacts of significant change, said—more eloquently than I could—in a New York Times article reproduced in the Australian Financial Review on 31 October 2008:
No country, no sector of the economy, will escape the crisis. The economic model rooted in the early 1980's is falling apart. It was based on maximising profit by abolishing regulation aimed at protecting the interests of society as a whole. For decades we have been told that this benefits everyone: "a rising tide lifts all boats". Yet the statistics say that it didn't. … Without a moral component any system is doomed to fail. (The soil I ploughed for two decades at Macquarie Street) Gadigal people of the Eora nation the land
• · · · · Financial decisionmaking and human nature Teaser loans ; Mr. Buffet, Mr. Soros: Please Stop Investing in Filthy Fossil Fuels Whatever it takes even if it’s a deficit
• · · · · · ; Solar Power: Germany–1,000; Australia–1 Solar stuff-up ; Limits to our patience …ASU student Alex Botsios said he had no problem giving a nighttime intruder his wallet and guitars. When the man asked for Botsios' laptop, however, the first-year law student drew the line Whatever it takes even if it is Lap Lap top

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The more things a (wo)man is ashamed of, the more respectable s/he is.
-George Bernard Shaw (unrelated to Catherine H Shaw )

What does the Peter Mandelson three-men-in-a-boat affair have to do with the price of fish? In the midst of the greatest financial crisis in human history - according the Bank of England economist Charles Bean - does it really matter who said what to whom on Oleg Deripaska's yacht in Corfu? Yes, actually it does. This affair tells us a great deal about how Britain got into its current financial mess. What may appear to be a lot of bitching by Bullingdon Berties is actually highly revealing about the relationship between political and financial power in public life. Our politicians simply can't help themselves: they are in love with wealth. And this infatuation has robbed them of their judgment. Politicians must end their love-in with the super rich - There was a failure to appropriately assess the regulatory and reputational risks. It seems to be a pattern similar to Enron Offshore secrecy jurisdictions


Leadership in the APS: its influence on workplace culture
Lynelle Briggs

Leadership and culture have an intricate relationship. Each can operate on its own, but when they operate together towards a common purpose, they become a very powerful tool. Culture is about shared ways of thinking, how people behave and interact, and what information and ideas they value as being important. In many ways it is an unspoken and unwritten aspect of an organisation - it's the way things are done around here.

• A culture can work to the benefit or detriment of organisational success. So too can leadership...; [As Steve noted This is a powerful article: Past U.S. generations invented the airplane; invented the automobile; discovered penicillin; and built the Interstate highway system. The Baby Boom generation has invented credit default swaps; mortgage backed securities; the fast food drive thru window; discovered the cure for erectile dysfunction; and built bridges to nowhere. No wonder we’re in so much trouble. US Culture Our Culture – sneeze develops to cold everywhere; Life is eternal, and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.
A golden heart stopped beating, hardworking hands at rest.
What moves through us is a silence, a quiet sadness, a longing for one more day, one more word, one more touch, we may not understand why you left this earth so soon, or why you left before we were ready to say good-bye, but little by little, we begin to remember not just that you died, but that you lived. And that your life gave us memories too beautiful to forget. When tragedy strikes, people are at a loss of words.]
• · Once upon a time, foes of immigration were more concentrated on the country's political left than the right. Writes Vargas Llosa: "In a radio address given in 1977, Ronald Reagan mocked 'the illegal alien fuss,' asking himself: 'Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion, or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do?' If only in the interest of political survival, those who claim to idolize the Gipper -- the same guy who in 1986 legalized almost 3 million Hispanics, many of whom were driven by fear to vote for Obama -- should think again." Obama's Herculean Task; What's Ahead for Taxpayers?
• · Failure to significantly reduce poverty could eventually destabilise world peace and security; dealing with it successfully is in our national interest.The global hunger challenge: an opportunity for Australian leadership; The Chinese cheer the Democratic victor with a wary eye on his trade policy The world looks to Obama
• · · Today, cybercriminals run their operations like businesses: they outsource, watch margins, cut costs. Security managers must first understand such opponents before they can begin to defeat them. The cybercrime arms race ; You know times are tough when the rich start cutting costs on their mistresses. Tough Times
• · · · Economy; Lack of it
• · · · · The logic of capitalist crises and the 'slaughtering of capital values Financial deregulation and the sub-prime crisis; This is not a time for bureaucratic mumbling but plain, honest speech, of a type that Australians and their leaders were once noted for. Spin no cure for depression
• · · · · · On a lighter side of life Salsa Scene In Sydney ; A FORMER taxman has penned his first novel at the age of 60 after developing a love of history. Ian Bonaccorso of Eight Mile Plains has written Addio Italia - Hello Australia an historical account of Stanthorpe Italian pioneers, from 1925 to 1935 in Southern Star (Springwood), 12/11/2008 Addio Italia - Hello Australia is $49.50 at Daw Road Newsagency, Warrigal Rd, Runcorn, or order by email: bonastar@ bigond.net.au A novel way to record history

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November as been a month filled with hens parties, bucks parties, weddings: first Ana and Rudi of Gymea fame and then Patrick and Chris of Newport fame ... So much dancing and so many blisters. Highlighs this month must be the six whales at Iceberg I watched with the ondon Mafia Robie, Tim, Sofie, etc... Monday before the Melbourne Cup will be remmembered by Mal as the time when dinner was served with the view of the Whales and the Viewed won the following day so the dinner was paid for by other punters ...

He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.
-- Paul Keating (overheard at the launch of Hugh Lunn's latest wordsmith gems at French Forest)

Happy birthday Internet: click go the cheers, Agnes King, Jeanne-Vida Douglas & Mark Jones, BRW, 9 October 2008, pp.24-31. Looking back at the 20th anniversary of the transmission of the first data packets across what became the Internet. Articles discuss the beginning, and changing uses, of the Internet, 10 things coming in the next 5 years, and the Internet as the infrastructure of the digital economy. Social networking online is full of pitfalls for the unsuspecting. Don't put anything on FaceBook, MySpace, or similar web 2.0 applications, unless you'd be happy to see it broadcast or on the front page of the newspaper. Two decades or even more since Cold River took place and one still has to be aware of computer based espionage and how organisations can defend against it How to prevent cyber espionage

Hungry Media Dragon Bivings Report: American Newspapers and the Internet: Threat or Opportunity?
We have recently completed the 2007 study of America’s top 100 newspaper websites, entitled American Newspapers and the Internet; Threat or Opportunity?

As the newspaper industry continues to suffer declines in readership and circulation, using the Internet to expand a newspaper’s reach is becoming more and more important. While many industry experts fear that the Internet will spell the end of newspapers as we know them, our team here at TBG feels that the Internet presents newspapers with a unique opportunity to make up for lost circulation and readership. This study explores these concepts, as well as the difficulties facing newspapers regarding online advertising, shrinking staffs, and reaching out to consumers...research data is available in Excel format here

• Pdf formatNews of Media Dragons; [Security vendors have long been criticised for making grandiose claims about the efficacy of their wares. Calculating a specific product or solution's potential return on investment 'is mostly bunk in practice' Security can be measured ; Companies of all sizes have begun to embrace Moodle, an open source learning management system that can be downloaded free and operates with virtually every other training related software system on the market. Moodle goes corporate ]
• · Welcome to the age of globalisation, modernity and all sorts of other forms of “progressiveness”. A couple of years ago I did an assignment entitled “Progress is Always Good”. Unfortunately I didn’t know then what I know now. Progress means the Internet, no barriers, there is no time therefore there is no reality. Hello, Internet dating!; That was fast. In eight days, my mate and his girlfriend 'winked' and were seriously dating. So what constitutes an internet date exactly? Internet dating: instant love or instant disappointment?
• · The best connections are the ones that take you to new and strange places. Slate writer, Daniel Gross, certainly ventured off the map when he connected the number of Starbucks locations in a country’s financial capital with how affected the city has been by the recent economic blast. The more Starbucks stores, the worse affected. Starbucks: The world's local coffee house ; This case study focuses on the process involved in a pharmaceutical company's decision to rapidly promote and develop an existing staff member to the position of Chief Information Officer. Some valuable executive development lessons were learnt along the way High speed executive development
• · · Open-source politics is the idea that social networking and participatory technologies will revolutionize our ability to follow, support, and influence political campaigns. Forget party bosses in smoky backrooms—netroots evangelists and web consultants predict a wave of popular democracy as fundraisers meet on MySpace, YouTubers crank out attack ads, bloggers do oppo research, and cell-phone-activated flash mobs hold miniconventions in Second Life...How times changed report from 2003 AD - is a commentary on the inherent impediments to implementing enterprise-wide blogging tools due to issues such as application interoperability, the volume of data involved, and the hierarchy used for information storage. Why Blogs Haven't Stormed the Business World ; MotherJones Examines Role of Web 2.0 in Political Campaigns
• · · · I would like to announce the launch of the Texas Digital Library's (TDL) blog, The Scholar's Space, featuring a team of four contributors (including me), with more to come over the next few months. The Scholar's Space joins scholarly communications blogs sponsored by friends at other colleges and universities, and national and international organizations. We'll be providing commentary on newsworthy items related to TDL participants' local and global interests in academic processes and systems of research -- from providing access to data and information, to online collaboration and new approaches to reporting out results and public archiving of papers and data The Scholar's Space; BlawgWorld 2007 is the best way to explore and discover legal blogs (blawgs). It features 77 remarkable essays from 77 of the most influential blawgs. Each blogger handpicked their best essay of the year for inclusion in the eBook. The 2007 TechnoLawyer Problem/Solution Guide is a revolutionary new way to find Solutions to Problems your law firm is experiencing. Specifically, it contains 185 Problems and corresponding Solutions. Each Problem is written in the form of a question from the point of view of a law firm and organized by topic. Topics include case management, depositions, discovery, document management, legal research, time-billing, and many more — 58 topics in all." (366 pages, PDF) TechnoLawyer BlawgWorld 2007:
• · · · · Longer office hours and extended computer usage is increasing bad vision. Around 48 percent of officer workers suffer from computer eye fatigue, according to the Optometrists Association of Australia ; Office workers risk computer eye fatigue,
• · · · · · Some things keep resurfacing in October 2008 AD – Applies Media Exemption to Political Blogs the Commission determined that Kos Media, L.L.C., which operates the website DailyKos, did not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act. The Commission rejected allegations that the site should be regulated as a political committee because it charges a fee to place advertising on its website and it provides “a gift of free advertising and candidate media services” by posting blog entries that support candidates. Kos Media; LibWorm Beta is intended to be a search engine, a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for people who work in libraries or care about libraries. LibWorm collects updates from about 1400 RSS feeds (and growing). The contents of these feeds are then available for searching, and search results can themselves be output as an RSS feed that the user can subscribe to either in his/her favourite aggregator or in LibWorm's built-in aggregator...Each feed searched by LibWorm has been assigned a category, so when you browse by Feed Category, you're seeing all the content from the feeds that have been assigned to that category. Subjects are pre-built searches, usually of greater complexity than the user interface currently supports, for common subjects of interest to libraryfolk." This site is free. LibWorm Beta