I’m watched with some interest as the Occupy movement has sprung up in Australia. They have taken over Melbourne (until they were unceremoniously given the boot) and Martin Place in Sydney too.
Of course, in a democratic country like Australia you are entitled to protest, but what’s not exactly clear is what they want to achieve from protesting.
In interviews, Australian Occupy spokespeople say they aren’t protesting. So are they just camping then?
And they say that they represent the 99%, but almost universally they are students and the unemployed (who are not the 99%, sorry to rain on parades by stating the bleeding obvious).
My logic comprehends the American movement where banks have screwed the little guys to the wall only to get bailed out by the Government.
But that situation didn’t happen in Australia, so is Australia just going out in sympathy with our American friends?
I read a great comment written by a guy from Melbourne who said:
“For those above who question the fawning (about Steve Jobs death), please consider the following. And to put some perspective, I have deep roots in the IT industry over 20 years, do not like Apple as a company, their products nor their marketing and manufacturing policies.
However, I am saddened by the death of Steve Jobs. Not because of the products or company he created, but because of what he helped lead the IT industry to accomplish.
Jobs and Wozniak put affordable computers on people’s desks (Apple II & Macintosh).
Jobs and Gates brought accessible operating systems to the masses (Windows and MacOS).
Jobs and Xerox came up with small desktop printers (LaserWriter).
Jobs company NeXT provided the computers so that Berners-Lee could invent the world wide web (Internet as we now know it).
Jobs pioneered plug ‘n play so that peripherals “just work”.
Jobs brought the music and communications industries into the 21st century through devices and software for the masses which made things easy for you (iTunes and iOS).
So next time you wonder why Jobs is hailed as an IT genius and an IT God, take a good look at your desktop computer, laptop, handheld device, tablet, music library, mobile phone, the internet and remember……. without Jobs, none of that would’ve happened.”
Our friends in the North of America really truly deeply love adding “ville” to the end of place names.
So I thought it might be a bit of fun to draw up a list of 80 “ville” places that you can visit by clicking on the links.
There will be many fine examples of “villes” that I’ve missed, so feel free to drop me a line and I’ll add to the list. (And no, I didn’t include OBAMAVILLE, Colorado Springs because it didn’t turn up in Google Maps, even though its name is kinda catchy.)
Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists. (Ed: Calling all gullibles who actually believe this…)
Rising greenhouse emissions may tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report for Nasa.
It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.
This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by scientists at Nasa and Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.
Read more at The Guardian (if you can without cringing).
As the world became more technologically advanced, humans could communicate better and travel farther, effectively causing our world to “shrink.” Soon, Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy mused in 1929, the world would get so small that every person on average would be approximately six steps from every other person on Earth.
Have we made it there yet?
Mathematicians, sociologists, and physicists have long struggled over that question, and now Yahoo and Facebook have joined together to find out. They are testing the “six degrees of separation” theory by asking Facebook’s 750 million users, each of whom have an average of 130 friends, to select one Facebook friend to be the “target person.” A message will then be sent from friend to friend — in what they hope is less than six friends — until they get to the target person.
They’re calling it the Small World Experiment and anyone with a Facebook account can participate.
The study’s findings will be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and research scientists are calling it “a milestone” because this research could not have been done even 15 years ago.
So there is a truckie (or two) that’s already hit the road to travel to Canberra to declare no confidence in the current Gillard-Brown-Windsor-Oakeshott-Milne Government. (There are a few others I could lob in, but you get the general idea, most of us aren’t too sure who is actually in charge of the country at the moment.)
It warms the very cockles of my heart to see so many ordinary Aussies (that happen to drive humungous trucks) hitting the highways to make their voices heard. As a staunch defender of the little guy I think its only right to give them a decent plug and to encourage everybody to join in on the action.
So if you have an electric scooter, a skateboard, a tractor, a car, a Winnebago, bicycle, ute, horse ‘n’ cart, an ambo or Mac truck, you can hook up as part of this convoy… the details of which are located over at Just Grounds, party central for the No Confidence Convoy.
The supremely excellent Jo Nova has also given the ol’ convoy of no confidence a decent plug and, being the Picasso that she is, has created this map outlining the 11 routes that our Aussie truckies will take as they converge on Canberra:
So the convoy will arrive in Canberra one week after this little protest:
…where about 5000 people descended to mark the one-year anniversary of the mother of all whoppers:
FINAL THOUGHTS…
At the start of Australia’s most disastrous government ever, Joolya said “game on”.
Guess she should have been careful what she wished for.
How are you today, My name is Mr. Stephane Devos, a Business Manager with (Cambodia office), am as well an account officer to a deceased customer of our bank, that shares the same last name as yours Mackenzie, who died on a car accident with his wife and two children along Cambodian Thai-way on November 16th 2004. His account of US$18,765,000.00 million with us has been unclaimed due to unavailability of next of kin/relatives to claim his estate.
In accordance with the es cheat laws in Cambodia as a kingdom, the Board of Directors of the bank met forth night ago and resolved to turn the estate of the deceased over to Government pause having waited for too long without the deceased relatives/next of kin surfacing property and if this is done, invariably, the funds will end up to become Government property and it is as a result of this that am moved to contact you considering the fact that you share almost the same name with the deceased Mackenzie. Hope the money will be intact pending until my physical arrival at your end for sharing?
In view of this, am seeking your cooperation and understanding to stand as the deceased next of kin to enable us claim the inheritance before the period given by the bank elapse. All I require is your honest co-operation and I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please accept my apologies and keep my confidence. At the end of the transfer you shall have 45% of the total amount.
Considering the money involved, and due to the nature of this transaction, it is necessary for you to be sure of whom you are transacting with. I want to be sure that you are ready, to execute this transaction with me, What I expect from you is trust and commitment, I want this large sum of money transferred with your assistance and you should have nothing to worry about regarding legality at all because what affects you Shall also affects me too, but I will appreciate you to follow my directives amicably as everything shall be done in accordance passing through all international banking laws, and as a banker I know that if we follow up this transaction diligently it would be completed within 14 working days.
Do not fail to get back to me as soon as you have receive this mail to enable us discuss further, with your telephone and fax numbers for easy communication and oral discussion.
I wait your prompt reply on this.
Kind Regards
Mr. Stephane Devos
P.S. FEEL FREE TO DROP MR. DEVOS A NOTE IF YOU’D LIKE TO CLAIM MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
P.P.S. WANT TO MEET SOME FRIENDS OF MR. DEVOS STEPHANE?
