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Life flows better with great coffee and if you cannot drink the black gold brewed by Richard Calabro of Grind Espresso of CroNulla then consider going to the bible belt of Belrose where Scottie Callaghan shows you the way to the secrets of Italian culture. So never drink a bad cup of coffee ever again! This three hour Italian coffee course will ensure that you learn the finer art of coffee making in a relaxed, yet expert environment. Whether your weakness is latte, cappuccino or espresso, you’ll learn how to make the perfect cup every time! Start your Saturday at Belrose as they do in Italy and join us for a leisurely Italian breakfast of coffee and pastries as you learn the art of Italian espresso! Next, it’s time to taste some coffee blends, where you’ll be taught to distinguish the differences between northern and southern Italian style blends. You’ll also be shown how to get a perfect result from the Italian moka pot as well as a plunger. Your coffee expert will then show you step-by-step, exactly how to use the Italian-invented espresso machine and how to correctly foam milk. After the overview from your expert coffee maker, it’s time to spend 30 - 45 minutes on the coffee machines (both commercial and domestic) to make your own perfect cappuccino, latte or whatever takes your fancy! By the end of the 3 hour coffee course, you’ll become a true Italian espresso expert with a renewed appreciation for the humble cup of coffee! Espresso Company Australia 3/2 Niangala Close BELROSE NSW 2085

When things are not going well, until you get the truth out on the table, no matter how ugly Seeing Double
There is something about storytelling that attracts 'How-To' lists. A while back I posted a list by movie producer Peter Guber, and now I want to share some insight from the master of story, David Mamet who gives some great advice on what makes a successful scene

People read for all sorts of reasons. Some novels are just rollicking good stories and others hold deeper lessons. A novel can be an enjoyable read and also expand the mind.Fiction gives us an understanding of the motivations of people that is unmatched by any other art form. And that, of course is the beauty of fiction: it exposes every situation imaginable. Fiction provides a window into the human heart and human mind.We all live one life, but readers can live thousands of lives. Novels can open the mind. Researchers have argued that people who read novels and who have to think about the connection between a character's thoughts and their actions are better at social interaction. Children who read novels are developing their imagination, and therefore their ability to "think outside the square" and solve problems. And works of fiction can contain more specific, powerful messages. Fiction can move us to tears or laughter or it can move us to great deeds. George Orwell's masterpieces, 1984 and Animal Farm, did more to expose the general populace to the dangers of totalitarian rule than all the pontificating of democratic politicians put together. These books became "must reads" for anyone interested in life under dictatorships. Novels can be powerful weapons in social struggles.

• Chris Bowen is the federal Assistant Treasurer and member for Prospect. Fiction nurtures the soul - a must even for pollies ; [Telling the perfect tale; David Cameron has been transformed into a flesh and blood representative of the people by the sad death of his son. The politics of empathy: David Cameron and Ivan’s death ]
• · In the age of the 'war on terror' censorship in Hollywood works by omission and 'introspective dross'. Hollywood's new censors;
• · Carved between sand, rock, and sea, Rio is simply the most beautiful city in the world and definitely one of my favorites. So Many A Second; Anyone who works with me knows that I often communicate in the form of handwritten notes on typed memos. That contrast of handwriting and typed text has a freshness and immediacy I don't get in email. The spirit of the pen
• · · Why is the artistic imagination treated as a thing of angry suspicion and distaste by some people and with awe by others? Manifesto for the imagination; The desire for FREE on the Internet is a huge challenge to anyone who produces digital entertainment. I think that emerging from the torrent of files that are being forwarded from computer to computer, is a word that will have a terrific impact on our future. Sharing …
• · · · LinkedIn etiquette: five dos and don'ts / Facebook etiquette: five dos and don'ts Two articles with tips on better management of your social networking; The proposed internet filtering system currently being tested is fast becoming a disaster for this government. Internet: don’t link, don’t leak
• · · · · The myth of Gen Y being lazy, pampered beasts unwilling to move out of home denies the fundamental economic reality Generation Y, the economy and the media; The problem of worsening violence in public places is an international phenomenon and there are no quick fixes The new nightlife: less like Paris, more like the Somme’

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New chapter in Cold River as it flows past Coast of Fires ...

Like Media Dragon, Kevin loves the dramas at work and the movies, although one only needs to go into a DVD store to see that for every great film out there, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, that aren't so good. He has some sympathy for a business that has to live off creative ideas, but his advice to the movie industry would be to get closer to the audience… Movie Magic For serial entrepreneurs, there are no failures, only learning experiences.It's the thrill of a good idea and managing opportunities that count - the wealth will take care of itself. Our greatest storytellers are also the ones with the greatest empathy In a deep stroke of good timing

Excited about ideas like Dr Cope or Patricia Azarias Most of all, they are willing to collaborate
The really good scholars are self-confident, and that confidence allows them to treat everyone else with respect and kindness. They are excited about ideas, and they are willing to share. Most of all, they are willing to collaborate — they are the ones organizing symposia, inviting guest speakers, cultivating graduate students, and just generally creating the kind of atmosphere where good work flourishes and everyone benefits.

It’s amazing to me how many times I’ve seen people — “established” scholars and younger students alike — give absolutely terrible papers, and then walk around snubbing everyone around them. Insecurity leads to intellectual isolation; people become greedy, self-centered, and unwilling to share. When they do present things, they are often incoherent because they don’t care a whit about sharing their thoughts with the community; indeed sometimes it seems like they try to intentionally make their arguments confusing in order to make themselves seem smarter. It backfires — they end up sounding pompous and priggish, but they don’t end up sparking fresh ideas or adding anything new to the discourse.

• Backfires; [Michael Lewis, of Moneyball fame, has now added one more story to MoneyLaw's repertoire of narratives highlighting the value of good teamwork … the single factor that makes a great team player is the mirror image of the single factor that turns even the most productive scholar into a toxic Arschloch: selfishness. Battier has almost none of that trait, and his teamwork makes him the greatest basketball player that no casual fan can name. Rocket man ; The only two things in life that are certain are Death and Taxes, so the popular lamentation goes. As all taxpaying Americans know, the government utilizes its powers under the Sixteenth Amendment to collect its citizens' money and utilize it, ideally, for public good ]
• · The transformation of the media world is well underway, facilitated by the spread of digital tools. A myriad of innovative new media organizations have sprung up to take advantage of the opportunities that stem from low-cost distribution networks Papers Explore News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age ; The New Media Index is a weekly report that captures the leading commentary of blogs and social media sites focused on news and compares those subjects to that of the mainstream press. The Project also tracks the most popular news video on YouTube each week. Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism Launches New Media Index
• · Adapting some of the technology pioneered by Google News, we're now showing categories on the left side of the website and organizing the blog posts within those categories into clusters, which are groupings of posts about the same story or event Official Google Blog ; Every blog has its day: Politically-interested Internet users' perceptions of blog credibility. Examininatin of U.S. politically-interested Internet users' perceptions of the credibility of blogs. The study found that blogs were judged as moderately credible, but as more credible than any mainstream media or online source. Both reliance and motivations predicted blog credibility after controlling for demographics and political variables. Reliance proved a consistently stronger predictor than blog motivations. Also, information-seeking motives predicted credibility better than entertainment ones. Politically-interested Internet Users' Perceptions of Blog Credibility
• · · Another New Obama Administration Website: Recovery.gov Goes Live Recovery.gov is a website that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going Recovery.gov ; What you should not do if you are a Vice Dean of Research earning a $269,280 salary with an $115,000 administrative stipend: steal a student's bike in full view of a security camera Candid Camera
• · · · Although, key people at HBOS did do wrong, I am also sure that their intentions were usually good and, in a sense, they were also caught up themselves in what the Greek tragedies would call the “ineluctability of fate”. To mix a few well known similes / metaphors / stories, the current financial crisis is a bit like the story of the Emperor’s new clothes. Anyone whose eyes were not blinded by money, power and pride (Hubris) who really looked carefully knew there was something wrong and that economic growth based almost solely on excessive consumer spending based on excessive consumer credit based on massively increasing property prices which were caused by the very same excessively easy credit could only ultimately lead to disaster. But sadly, no-one wanted or felt able to speak up for fear of stepping out of line with the rest of the lemmings who were busy organising themselves to run over the edge of the cliff behind the pied piper CEOs and executive teams that were being paid so much to play that tune and take them in that direction. I am still toxic waste now for having spoken out all those years ago! I would be amazed if there were not many executives who, if they really examined their consciences closely, would not say that they knew this too. HBOS whistleblower: statement of evidence; Secrecy in Britain about corporate tax and failure to enforce the law have allowed tax avoidance to flourish, the Guardian's tax gap investigation has found. The government has failed to enforce disclosure rules in the Companies Act under which details of all offshore subsidiaries, which can be used for tax avoidance, must be publicly registered. A climate of private and state secrecy
• · · · · Senators Carl Levin and Charles Grassley introduced on Jan. 29 the “Hedge Fund Transparency Act,” and voting against that would be akin to attacking Mom and apple pie. We have come to learn that hedge funds are hardly immune to the market’s travails, and the immunity the managers of these vehicles enjoyed is likely to end with greater regulatory control and disclosure of trading strategies. Mr. Madoff showed that the black-box investment strategy is a chimera. His scam worked for as long as it did because he kept his investment program away from outside scrutiny, using a little-known accounting firm and not using an independent custodian to hold the securities. If the proposed legislation sheds a bit more light on the hedge fund world, then it may be worthwhile. Greater regulation is no panacea, but breaking down the idea that great wealth and a rising economy somehow makes one a “sophisticated investor” would be a positive development. Public disclosure can have a great leveling effect by showing that investment managers are not necessarily all that sophisticated. And rather than making investments more complex, perhaps a return to an earlier time that valued protecting clients and managing their investments for the long term might be worth considering. The next time you read that a financial advisor or hedge fund manager is a “sophisticated investor,” make sure to take it with a grain of salt. ; It is nonsense to defend tax avoidance by arguing that rewards are reaped by tomorrow's pensioners …. There is nothing new about tax avoidance. Most Georgian houses have blind windows, bricked up to avoid window taxes. And almost a millennium ago, in what could be seen as a blatant but dramatic tax avoidance device, Lady Godiva rode naked through Coventry to shelter its citizens from the Heregeld.
When Lady Godiva rode through Coventry, people closed their windows and stayed indoors. But the time for turning a blind eye to avoidance has long gone: we now need greater tax transparency Backdoor fictions
• · · · · · At the last count, since rules requiring the disclosure of tax avoidance arrangements to HMRC were introduced in 2004 there had been around 14,000 such schemes. Or so we thought. Now it seems these might be far from the limit of the problem, as many "promoters" of schemes, such as accountants, lawyers and specialist "boutique" tax avoidance firms, are refusing to play the game. A parliamentary answer obtained by Austin Mitchell MP, who has also tabled an early-day motion urging action on tax avoidance, reveals that no fewer than 90 promoters are under investigation for failing to disclose schemes. Presumably they were either hoping they wouldn't be picked up or think they have found a loophole in the rules. Presumably they were either hoping they wouldn't be picked up or think they have found a loophole in the rules. ; Dozens of senior civil servants accepted lavish corporate hospitality including trips to Wimbledon and the Chelsea Flower Show and invitations to watch England, Chelsea and Manchester United play. Sir Brian Bender is a top Whitehall mandarin. So what was he doing at Wimbledon, the Derby and the Chelsea Flower Show?; Humor of rules TRIGUBOFF'S SPARE HOUSE IS PART OF HIS HOME, JUDGE RULES

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

To be sure to be sure it is Friday and some partially pregnant souls fail to farewell Media Dragons as new venture and team calls ... As it is in Teams- It's the corporate stereotype - the ruthless alpha male

Obviously, there was always a bit of anxiety about whether all those premiers would ever agree to that $42 billion worth of free stuff. But they did - and did you ever see a happier little bunch of vegemites? Forgive our leaders - they're having a lovely, lovely crisis

If all the tools at our disposal, listening is the secret weapon that can create the most value. Whether you're playing for global stakes or selling hotdogs, the only way to work out what to do next is by listening. Who should you be listening to? You know who ... Media Dragons

Out of the blue Bohemians joins the dots to find purpose: Redundancy figures are just ‘tip of the iceberg’
Peter Hartcher reached a point a few years ago where he stopped reading anything on China that included this quote from Napoleon: "China is a sleeping dragon. Let him sleep. If he wakes, he will shake the world."

In the great gush of China boosterism of the past decade, this became one of the ritual incantations. It was always followed by the claim that China had awoken and was about to shake the world. Often, analysts would simply stick this quote together with the country's economic growth rate and, hey presto!, you had an irrefutable case for China's uninterrupted rise to global dominance.

• The research organisation GFK Australia has just revealed that the best-selling DVD of 2008 was not Underbelly Our love affair with China is cooling but far from over; [The research organisation GFK Australia has just revealed that the best-selling DVD of 2008 was not Underbelly Two heroes actually worth talking about; Previously it had been presumed that fish, then the highest forms of life on Earth Knowledge of ancient mating rituals within their clasp ]
• · The SMH - The Sydney Magazine - has a feature on Iceberg as this year it celebrates 80th anniversary. It talks about its 80 year old rule 15 B - The Bondi Icebergs swimming club was formed in 1929. The club played an important role in the growth of Bondi beach culture. To be a member, swimmers had to brave the chilly Bondi Baths at least three out of every four Sundays during the winter months, for a period of five years. The Icebergs became the source of long standing humour in Sydney and the local press often reported on their winter antics. As John Singleton said during the fight to save the Iceberg's club in the 1990s, the Icebergs are iconic and something that Australians hold close to their hearts-larrikins who still had the discipline to complete a minimum 75 swims during five years of swimming almost every winter Sunday Did you know that former school captain Andrew Kucharewicz can now out-drink Boris Yeltsin?; A unique representation of a fast disappearing Australian culture; one that doesn’t take itself too seriously, one where competition is important but where a fair-go, generosity and mateship are even more so. Ken Eastman, Matt Barry, Alan Gow and Chucky are captured by wilk – They used to say that you could either be happily married or be a member of the Iceberg …You just never know who you might bump into at Bondi Icebergs Club...
• · by Robert Higg For nearly a decade, we acted as though taking on more debt posed no problem. The Government's Cure for Alcoholism--Whiskey, More and More Whiskey; New Strategy in War on Terror? Don’t Hold Your Breath
• · · Masterpieces reflect their creator, including fiscal fantasies where even the wildest dreams can be funded. In politics, a $42 billion stimulus package is about as good as it gets. Faith of our fathers: $42 billion spend misses the mark; Kevin has posted before about how small steps to change the way we live and the things we buy can make amazing things happen.
Turn the Tide
• · · · A book of 14 essays on innovation in organisations; a mix of case studies and discussions, particularly on innovation networks. Inside the innovation matrix: finding the hidden human dimensions ; Rural internet can mean shifting data on a USB stick driven off in a cloud of motorcycle dust, or bumping along in an ox cart. Rural internet - offline but still connected
• · · · · Sydney's reign as the nation's criminal underbelly comes to grim life in a new series. FOR CRIMINALS and corrupt police, the 1970s were the best of times. Corrupt cops, it's addictive TV crims and a heroin kingpin; The veteran crime reporter Andrew Rule recalls the day that, as a cadet journalist, he found himself caught in a deadly crime drama Men of the gun who inspired Underbelly
• · · · · · The Code sets out the standards of personal integrity, professionalism and behaviour that are expected of ministerial staff... Code of Conduct for Ministerial Staff - Circular 2008/7, ; You have to hand it to The Guardian newspaper as it is publishing a series of article about corporate tax avoidance using tax havens. The article below is an introduction. As it is in Haven

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By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere.
-Billy Crystal

While some claim the first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Parlement of Foules (1382) by Geoffrey Chaucer this may be the result of misinterpretation. Chaucer wrote:
For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.
This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. A treaty providing for a marriage was signed on May 2, 1381. (When they were married eight months later, he was 13, and she was 14)

Malchken, In my heart, you beat loudest …. Be my Rock 'n Roll Valentine
Chocolate and Valentine's Day as well as Shakespeare just seem to go together

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.
(William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5)

• A stylish subterranean nightspot in the wheeling and dealing professional heart of Sydney Crystal of Bohemian underground; [ Valentine Film Ideas for Your Bohemian Girl; Somebody to Love and Bohemian Rhapsody ; What is Love Love ]
• · The annual day of love falls on a weekend this year giving couples a whole day and night to celebrate their relationship. Love longer this Valentine's ; Ernest Hemingway wrote the first one: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Tales of love, six words only ; Valentine's Day, the day of love letters

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Experts worry that Australia, which emits more carbon dioxide per head than any nation on earth, may also be the first to implode under the impact of climate change. Parched: Australia faces collapse as climate change kicks in

Be Different: STAND OUT In Campaign Wars, Apple Still Has Microsoft’s Number
Winning the Dream On the Mac’s silver anniversary, we look at where it’s been—and where it’s headed next…

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, Apple hurled a legendary marketing sledgehammer at I.B.M. personal computers that ran Microsoft software. During the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple ran a television ad that depicted those machines as instruments of Big Brotherish conformity. The ad was shown just once, but people still talk about it.

• Apple ads Strike; [Working on a Dream. Nothing memorable can be written without the writer taking some kind of risk – Media Dragon type risks between the lines and coded We call these people the CRAZY ONES; What makes some objects Apples and others not? The Macintosh computer just turned 25. I bought one of the original 128K Macs not long after they came out. I remember being reluctation to shell out $50 for a box of 10 400k floppy disks (these were the the 3.5″ type that weren’t actually floppy, and became standard on IBM PCs quite a few years later). I thought I was unlikely ever to need 4 megabytes of storage, so I got the store to sell me what was left in a box they’d already opened. And I was pretty dubious that anyone could really use the 512K of RAM offered in w the top-of-the-line “Fat Mac” which came out soon afterwards. It didn’t take me long to discover my error and upgrade. Great Mac: Credit where credit's due ]
• · Could the story of Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar be part of yet another infinite spectrum of reoccuring themes the illuminati are feeding us?
- Both Caesar and Jesus start their rising careers in neighboring states in the north: Gallia and Galilee.
- Both have to cross a fateful river: the Rubicon and the Jordan. Once across the rivers, they both come across a patron/rival: Pompeius and John the Baptist, and their first followers: Antonius and Curio on the one hand and Peter and Andrew on the other. Both are continually on the move, finally arriving at the capital, Rome and Jerusalem, Sydney; Justice Michael Kirby: unimpeachable in office, a public intellectual with influence and a private citizen who is an adornment to the great egalitarian ethos of Australia. Farewell to an Honourable Jurist
• · The human race is in a mess because we make wild guesses and claim them to be true: we eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The price of judgment; There's always been a tension between love and hate. A tension that romantic drama, for example, thrives on. It worked in Pride and Prejudice, and works still. Science is now discovering that the distance between love and hate may not be as big as we have always imagined Love and Hate
• · · Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), seminar papers, 4 December 2008. This seminar, held in the Parliamentary Theatre, Parliament House, introduced web managers and IT professionals from local, state and federal government agencies to new web technologies and highlighted some of the interesting uses of Web 2.0 being employed by government. Web 2-0 in government ; These trials will inform future policy development in the area of online consultation and improve the processes for e-democracy in Australia.' Senator Conroy will today launch the first trial consultation, a blog canvassing the future of Australia's digital economy. the potential of digital innovation.exploring Web 2.0 technologies Rudd Government trial for e-democracy future; Online consultation
• · · · The purpose of this circular is [to] provide a set of interim protocols to agencies that are using or planning to use online media, including blogs, as a means of communication with clients and stakeholders. These protocols focus on the application of the APS Values and the APS Code of Conduct in online communication Interim protocols for online media participation - circular ; Analysts say big changes are coming to the CRM (customer relationship management) application market this year, with significant financial, strategic and technical implications for customers. In terms of CRM product functionality, look for last year's trend toward "social CRM" -- marked by collaboration tools like wikis and blogs within the CRM experience -- to morph into "cloud CRM," wherein CRM applications connect to external social-networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, as well as other Web sources.[or] introducing a product for content management.
Social networking ROI pricing among '09 CRM trends
• · · · · Entering what looks to be a trying 2009, IT resources will be limited and business pressures higher. But that doesn't mean withdrawal or going into reactive mode. In tough times, being clear on IT and technical priorities is even more important, as everything that is done is more critical. The top tech resolutions for 2009,; From iPod and BlackBerry to Twitter and Wikipedia, take a look at the processes and people who came up with the names for these iconic tech products. How 10 famous technology products got their dragon like names
• · · · · · Taking a page from the updated whitehouse.gov web site, the federal government has gone Web 2.0 with is own site. The General Service Administration (GSA) announced that it has delivered on a promise to use Web 2.0 technology to provide electronic access to government information. The USA.gov web site now is offering a government-wide news feed service RSS and a gallery of gadget applications Federal government has gone Web 2.0 with is own site ; US Feds' web site gets Web 2-0 make over ; Australian National Audit Office objective was to assess how well agencies manage their websites. Particular attention was given to the audited agencies' website purposes, risk management and planning, policies, content management procedures, and performance monitoring and reporting (PDF) Government agencies' management of their websites

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You cannot outrun a wildfire in Australia The bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria are the most deadly bushfires in Australian history. Stories of courage and horror are continuing to emerge ... It was the speed that caught us off guard. And the noise. Like a roaring, out-of-control freight train. It will be remembered as one of the darkest days in Australia's peacetime history

Australia Bushfires May Have Killed More Than 200 Bushfire continues to ravage S Australia : tales of heartache and survival

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Despite much attention to U.S. government policies since the early 1930s, key questions remain unresolved. Cold War … wise people store up knowledge even though words are chopped in half abondened at the end of lines left swivelling like cut worms eaten by Ukranian during the great famine Are We All Socialists Now? Not at All"


Can we change the heart of economics? Stimulus and Response: Watching Our Rulers Destroy Our World
The extra-constitutional (and thus unconstitutional) "bailout" and "stimulus" programs of the Bush and Obama administrations during the present economic crisis bring to mind Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose failed interventions turned a recession into the Great Depression, according to Robert Higgs, Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Independent Institute. Yet, further back in U.S history, one can find a vastly superior approach to dealing with economic fluctuations - one that brought the country phenomenal economic growth during the first century and a half of its existence.

As recently as the major recession of 1920-21, the government took a hands-off position, and the downturn, though sharp, quickly reversed itself into full recovery, Higgs writes in an op-ed for the Christian Science Monitor.In another recent article, Higgs argues that although the policies of our leaders in Washington, D.C., are ill designed to restore health to an ailing economy, they are well suited to making the leaders appear to be doing something. They are pouring credit madness on credit madness because they have no real understanding of how the economic world actually works, and, even if they understand, they are politically beholden to the owners and managers of failing economic behemoths who profited handsomely from the artificial prosperity of the boom and are now staring into the abyss.

• Many questions are being raised about the stimulus package's contents and efficacy. Hardly anyone, however, is asking the most importation question: Should the federal government be doing any of this? Instead of stimulus, do nothing – seriously; [As we wait to see how the politicians in Washington will alter the stimulus package the Obama administration is pushing, many questions are being raised about the measure's contents and efficacy. History shows that the economy can recover strongly on its own, if politicians stay out of the way; Neither Liberty nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government We have nothing to fear but hype itself]
• · The “stimulus package” is to sensible economic policy as—
military justice is to justice, John Maynard Keynes is to F. A. Hayek “I Love Lucy” is to “Much Ado about Nothing” Pat Robertson is to Mother Teresa a shipload of gravel is to the Rock of Gibraltar Reader’s Digest is to Tolstoy’s War and Peace
rap music is to classical music Tolstoy’s War and Peace ; The use of gross exaggeration - labelling every car crash a tragedy, every flood, a natural disaster, every stock market fall a depression - is mad. Every month 5 billion people loose a job yes 5 billion …
• · The media plays a crucial role in disseminating information regarding issues of public importance to the rest of society. The current global financial crisis and the bank failures that have contributed to it are issues of immense public interest and significant complexity. It is therefore the responsibility of the press to explain what has happened and what measures are being taken by government and financial institutions to address the current state of affairs so that members of the public may evaluate the actions taken by key decision makers and make informed decisions regarding their own circumstances. Banking Crises ; Zimbabweans identify with those words – for Martin Luther King’s dream is our dream. What however will make the actions of President Obama so effective is that they cannot be dismissed as racist. So we can take heart that Robert Mugabe’s regime has been served a powerful warning today that whilst there is a window of opportunity open it must be grasped quickly and in good faith. Hope is indeed on the way You make peace by talking to your enemies Senator David Coltart: Hope is on the way
• · · Neil Waters writes about confidence, candour, consistency and cheerfulness are useful leadership qualities in today's uncertain economic times Four qualities leaders need now, ; What Moses, Attila the Hun and 280,000 books can't tell you about the art of management You wouldn't read about it, Bob
• · · · Winning the Dream ;
• · · · · Common sense, not to mention the evidence, tells us that a larger population cannot possibly be in the interests of Australia. How the growth lobby threatens Australia's future; As Groucho Marx said to some unfortunate, "I never forget a face, but in your case, I'll make an exception". In policy, as in life, it matters when and how you make exceptions … It's Bruce Hawker No.1 and a distant second to anyone else. If you want an opportunity to present your case [to the State Government] you do it through Hawker Britton Tsunami of Lobbyists ; The march of the Chinese into Australia's resource space has intensified
• · · · · · There's nothing like a gathering of the corporate great and good to put the sparkle into the top end of town and the American Australian Association benefit dinner honouring Frank Lowy, the Westfield founder and executive chairman, was a well-needed tonic for the uncharacteristically humbled gathering. Being Frank: we have thousands of TV channels and shops but nothing is on ; China’s political tunnel China's deepening economic crisis is provoking social discontent that will place the Beijing leadership in an impossible political predicament, says the renowned democracy campaigner Wei Jingsheng. A cold wind in Beijing

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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