Australia   : loves and hates

 Monday, 4 February 2002

GoogleStak? No sooner had I finished the CSS course than Victor has come up with an idea for a new Stand Out Training course on Search Engine Strategies. He has a theory that it may be possible to outwit Google via a process he's dubbed the GoogleStak. I'm not convinced about the viability of such a course, nor do I believe it's possible to manipulate Google for one's own nefarious ends, or indeed for any other purpose.

10:08:42 PM    comments ()  

Oldest man in the world. Mainichi: "Yukichi Chuganji, a 112-year-old pensioner from Ogori, Fukuoka Prefecture, has been verified by the Guinness World Records as the world's oldest man." Chugani-san thinks he "can go on for a couple more years without any problem." On TV the week before last, I saw Australia's oldest man, Jack Lockett, celebrating his 111th birthday. Asked how much longer he wanted to live, he replied: "Until I die."

10:11:34 AM    comments ()  

Refugees' hard road to happiness. Dispiriting BBC News story about what happens to the refugees who are "lucky" enough to finally get a (temporary) visa. In the SMH, Robert Manne asks about the long term moral and political costs:

The costs of all this cruelty will not be borne by the refugees alone. If it is true, as I believe it is, that our country has been enriched in spirit by the courage of the volunteer firefighters this summer, so must it also be true that its spirit has been diminished by the cruelties committed in our name in the course of the construction of our new anti-asylum-seeker fortress.

I've always regarded Manne as a warm-hearted, soft-headed idealist -- perhaps Australia's leading chatterati. His opinion, although typically focusing on the problem without proposing a solution, suggests that he has a much stronger grasp of realpolitik than I'd imagined. Putting aside the inherent selfishness that lies at the core of our refugee policy, it's clear that too little thought has been given to the impact of this sorry saga on our long-term relationship with Muslim Indonesia.

9:12:45 AM    comments ()  

Ask and ye shall receive #3. SMH weather report: "On Monday an onshore airstream should be established along the NSW coast bringing showers/rain periods to the coast and ranges. Rain and isolated thunderstorms..." I said I liked Pacific Northwest weather. We'll have rain and thunderstorms for the rest of the week.

8:39:38 AM    comments ()