Where have I been ? now thats a really good question and one I want to answer, It's hard being angry and even more so trying to write insightful pieces when that anger keeps tainting the picture you want to convey.
So what have I been doing ? venting on Twitter and Facebook. I did however write an email to my local member or parliament.
my issues are big content and copyright and I intend to put pen to paper tomorrow so until then check out my profile on Twitter http://twitter.com/rorybaust
and to think this blog was meant to set those damn bees free
p.s got 2nd in the Melbourne Cup and won our sweep at home so gambling is doing ok
rorybaust.com an australians view of local & technology issues
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Friday, 4 September 2009
Goodbye Mr Percival
One of the 3 pelican stars of the 1975 Australian film Storm Boy, Mr Percival has sadly passed away at Adelaide Zoo aged 33. Storm Boy is a 1976 Australian film, based on the children's book by Colin Thiele about a boy and his pelican, it was filmed on the fierce deserted coast of South Australia's Coorong.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Blood Clots/Stroke - They Now Have a Fourth Indicator, the Tongue
I received this as an email, I did not write it and have edited the content to fit this posting, I assert no copyright of said piece and reproduce as a community awareness gesture only.
TBB
STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, Ingrid stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.
They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening
Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die. they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.
RECOGNIZING A STROKE
'3' steps, STR
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. It is sunny out today.)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Is Twitter Pimping Porn to Family Users?
http://www.businessweek.com
This article From businessweek describes in detail what has been a pet hate of mine since I joined Twitter. Twitter is a great platform, because I can have followers that I am not friends with yet, but in time it might happen. I want to interact with real people and Twitter is a great way to do that.
So if the above article does not scare you off join me on
http://twitter.com/rorybaust
This article From businessweek describes in detail what has been a pet hate of mine since I joined Twitter. Twitter is a great platform, because I can have followers that I am not friends with yet, but in time it might happen. I want to interact with real people and Twitter is a great way to do that.
So if the above article does not scare you off join me on
http://twitter.com/rorybaust
Putting yourself out there.
The hidden world of the Internet, and no I am talking about the seedier side, no I refer to the emotion of feedback. It is so easy these days to publish yourself, to put your well thought out and expressed ideas on line for the world to see.
There are a myriad of ways to publish your self on line, from Facebook and Twiitter to writing a blog, to just commenting on other people work. I am often moved to put the keyboard into action and express an opinion on an article that twigs my interest and have so for many years, which has lead me to starting this blog.
However as I alluded to there is a darker side to putting yourself out there, and that is the feedback or lack there of. It is quite mentally exhausting writing an opinion piece, but once completed and published there is a feeling of exhortation until the comments, remarks, insults or nothing comes.
This may sound like a whinge and I suppose it is, after all I decided to publish, but in reality I just wanted to point out that behind every blog is a person, a friend, a family member, a human being, so before you post just remember is it the person you have a problem with or the article, so don’t attack the man play the ball.
This is also true of Twitter and Facebook, although there is no compulsion to comment on all posts and messages you receive, a little courtesy in acknowledging that some one has commented on your piece does not go astray. If I was going to point fingers, it appears to me that the people on Twitter trying to sell you some thing are the worst offenders, all their interested in is the number of followers so they can get their sales pitch out there, I will let you know one thing I stop listening, to any one that won’t reciprocate on a mere message.
Oh and yes I am grammatical and politically incorrect a lot of the time, so please excuse any errors in this blog, the ideas are mine and so is the way they are written so feel free to comment
Friday, 28 August 2009
Technology on the move, don’t you love free coffee
I wrote the other day of what would happened if the news was owned, and how it might stifle the free flow of information, and although the concepts are sound my predictions will not happen because regardless of what governments legislate with the collusion of big media, it can not, and will not stop people telling each other and sharing the latest news with friends and family.
So will the walled garden approach work? it might for some, but for the large majority of newspapers, they are not dealing with an unique product, they are not value adding and competition exists within their own industry that mandates that they don’t charge for online access. So can you compete with free?
You can, but you have to change the model, not a rehash for the digital world but a complete shift in thinking is required.
Now I know what your thinking, haven’t we always paid for news? It might surprise you to hear that no, not at all, it's the advertisers that have been paying for you to be informed along with the slight hope that you may buy product X that is predominantly displayed next to a story on “ lack of political accountability” on page 3. This was is also true of other media like television and radio, but their woes are a story for another day.
Have you ever heard the expression "news sells", and in deed it does, it just not news that their selling. So what of the coins you hand over to the news stand everyday? It certainly feels like your paying for the news and yes you would be right except your paying for a cup filled with news, and not the news, Its the news that is encouraging you to hopefully read the advertising . This type of cup needs to be filled (printed) and distributed to the news stand, they expect some reward(profit) for getting it to the thirsty patrons and this is what you pay for not the coffee but the cup and the cost associated with getting the cup to you.
So what has changed and why, well as with all things, technology has moved on, the old style cups you used to buy are still available at the news stand fresh daily, but the problem with this type of cup is it's a one time only model only, you needed to buy a new one everyday if you want fresh coffee.
Now around 20 years ago some one invented a new type of cup called the computer, and someone else also invented a new coffee called the Internet. The best thing about this cup is it lasted a lot longer than a day, and the new coffee offered up an all you could drink option as well as what ever flavour you liked, but unlike the old cups of the past, the coffee never got stale, hit refresh and it was as if you had just been to the news stand, and this trick worked over and over.
At first it took people awhile to accept this new cup, it was a little slow to fill, and not all the flavours were available straight away and it cost a whole lot more but the people who tried it liked it, they told their friends and family who then also tried it and slowly the new cup won favour. The more people who purchased the new cup meant that it got cheaper to produce and more and more companies started making newer and better cups, also more people started offering newer and better coffees and so it went.
At first the people who made the old style cups were not worried after all they had history on their side, but soon they started to give away free coffee too, while still filling the old style cups and sending them off to the news stands, but these were not as popular as they once were and the advertisers started to wonder where all the coffee drinkers were.
It did not take them long to find them, and you know what else they found? A new and better way to connect to their customers, except this time there were many more cups than before and much more coffee than ever before, what they really needed was a way to target individual coffee drinkers, but how? They did not need to worry because there was a new way to do that called GOOGLE and Mr GOOGLE knew everything about all the coffee and who was drinking it, it did not take long for the advertisers to ask Mr GOOGLE for help and its seems everybody else liked him too, who needed to deal with Newspapers when Mr GOOGLE knew everybody.
My point is, Newspapers are failing because the world has moved on, they need to find a new cup, improve their cup or adapt to the new world, corrupting my cup won’t cut it.
Oh and if you think this is unfair, before the computer, if people wanted to type a letter they used a typewriter. Where are all the typewriters now? What of the people who sold them? What of the people who fixed them? They moved on and adapted and I think that newspapers have to realise that the world has changed and they need to as well, time will tell who learns the lessons that time has repeated, but charging for News I suspect will not be a lesson learned of success.
Oh and one last thing, nothing lasts forever so I hope Mr GOOGLE has a plan, because theres a new guy in town called Mr TWITTER and people are smitten.
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thursday, 27 August 2009
How quick is quick these days?
Did you hear that Ted Kennedy died yesterday? Of course you did, because if you are reading this, your reading this online and news travels very fast these days, well it does if your online and have upgraded from that old 56k dial up account you used to have. STOP! Please don’t, click that BACK key, this is not just another tribute article, well actually it’s not a tribute article at all.
What! don’t get stuffy with me you were just about to leave anyway, plus I am an Aussie whom although I knew of and respected Teddy, really couldn’t put two sentences together about the great man so instead I want to write about “what time did you hear of Ted Kennedy’s death ?
It was just another day in TBB household, Wednesday the 26th August 09 (I live in Australia so all times are referenced as + 10 hr GMT) I was catching up my Twitter posts when at 3.29pm crikey-news published a Twitter update that Ted Kennedy had died.
OMG! live breaking news, and me a budding journalist and all, I need to verify this, yeah you heard right. Oh yeah the other part of crikey-news tweet was I suppose a snide comment aimed at Richard Wilkins asking that if the world also let him know about Ted’s death. Who is Richard Wilkins? I hear you ask and why is he at all important, well after the death of Michael Jackson and on national morning television Richard announced to the Australian public that Jeff Goldblum had also died that day, he had not, Richard had fallen for an internet hoax. See it’s important to check your sources and some times verification is as easy as a few clicks and your done.
So how does one verify a breaking story from the Internet? With the Internet of course, it’s the fastest information medium on earth these days. OK you sound confused, using the same tool to verify the source of the news, well it’s really easy just enter the URL of your most trustworthy news service and see if they are reporting said breaking news, if yes or no just repeat procedure at your next trusted news site and so on, now I would say that 2 or more hits from respectable news sites would do the trick, but that up to you, I wonder how many Richard checks?
I was able to verify Ted’s death by the third site that I visited. 1st The Age (did not report to 3.41 pm) 2nd ABC aware of death no details, 3rd CNN had posted story, so at 3.37pm I posted an update on Twitter to my followers. I was happy that I had, had a small part in breaking some breaking news and after my post a deluge of posts followed BBC via Twitter 3.40pm, Time magazine 3.45pm via Twitter and so on.
Ok you say, I posted some breaking news on Twitter, no big deal so did everybody, and yes many people did and I think that it’s great, the free expression of news and ideas can only be a good thing, can’t it. But latterly there has been a lot of talk about online news and how the bloggers of the world are just stealing content and reposting it, sometimes as their own works. Newspapers are going broke and it’s all our fault, why it’s our fault is a little unclear, but still apparently this will have to stop. With out the media there would be no new news, so the world’s media are looking to build walled gardens around their News sites and we the reader if thats what we want to remain, are going to have to pay up, and yes the News will once again be owned by big media.
Now that they have built their nice little pay sites, what stops those nasty little bloggers doing what they have always done and just paying and stealing the content anyway. I don’t know but I suspect it might have some to do with enacting copyright.
Copyright has in the past as is now been used to protect the economic interests of the creator’s of semi intangible ideas and concepts allowing them to assert ownership over said concepts for a pre determined period of time, and thus allowing them to profit from their work and stimulate the further creation of ideas and works by others in providing an artificial mechanism of protection from theft.
So to my point, if big media owns the news, will I be able to post of said news in my own words to this blog, or will I be barred for a pre determined amount of time from reporting because NEWSDOTCOM owns that story.
are these possible new Twitter post of the future?
“ Breaking News, due to Copyright restrictions I am unable to divulge said news, but believe me it’s huge and you really want to know, I am sorry, if you really can’t wait then I hear that NEWSDOTCOM has all the news fit to pay for. “
“ Yesterdays news according to NEWSDOTCOM Ted Kennedy died yesterday”
Think this can’t or will not happen, I bet you thought you owned your music collection too.
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
What is happening to the bees
What is happening to the worlds honey bees? I don't know but if you have not heard the worlds honey bees are disappearing and Scientists are not sure as to why. In 2006 colonies across the USA suddenly disappeared, leaving many unanswered questions in their wake.
Now although this blog is The Bees Bonnet, I confess to having no knowledge is this area at all but I was alarmed because up to 90% of flowering plant pollination, required for fruit production is done by these cute little fella's, and if their demise is not halted could have horrific consequences world wide.
So I thought I would link to a site that knows what its on about. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0404/p13s01-sten.html
Does having been wrong about an issue/event in the past make you skeptical of forming or maintaining strong views about current issues?
Following on from yesterdays major article on justice I was thinking, does having been wrong about an issue/event in the past make you skeptical of forming or maintaining strong views about current issues?
I know that although I research my facts a lot more these days, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the internet for the ease of what we can now do, what used to take days, even weeks at the library in many case can be performed in mere hours. Not that research alone can guarantee the validity of story these days, as I am sure that the people who purchased the “ Hitler Diaries “ can attest.
But still with the Internet and the monumental expansion in easily accessible news surely it must be getting easier to come to an informed and balanced opinion that takes into account all of the facts and weighs all the pros and cons. Well If the way I feel is any indication, don’t think so.
I remember back to the days of the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance of June 11th 1980 in Mount Isa Queensland, this event obviously happened before the advent of the internet, and as I recall resulted in a media frenzy (we would call it a circus these days). Was it possible for a dingo to even take a baby? Could a mother murder her own child? Was anybody else involved?
It appears that everybody had an opinion, and lead by the media, (The findings of the first inquest were broadcast live on television) people sat back and passionately discussed/argued whether Lindy Chamberlain had indeed murdered her own daughter.
Lindy was eventually found guilty and convicted of the murder of Azaria, latter on she was exonerated of all charges and is today a free woman, but the questions still remain and I suspect that the truth of what actually happened that fateful day back in 1980 will never really be known.
Now to my point, I was a very strong believer that Lindy Chamberlain was guilty, I don’t know what lead me to this belief, was it gut, did the media persuade me, did others that I respected at the time persuade me, I don’t know, or as often heard in the court room chambers around the world “I can’t recall “. But the point is, that in my mind she was guilty and after extensive research into the concept of “hard labour” I was satisfied that the punishment fitted the crime, case over lets move on.
Well here we are 29 years on from that fateful day and I can tell you that I think I was wrong, It does not really matter either way because my determination had or will have no bearing on that case.
But what of the future? I live in a democratic country that respects law and order, and as such I may one day be called to perform jury duty, to make judgment on the innocence or guilt of some else. Obviously in this scenario I would be afforded all the evidence presented by the defence and prosecution and I along with 11 others of my peers would weigh all of that evidence and come to an informed and balanced opinion that takes into account all of the facts, evidence and weighs all the pros and cons to come to a conclusion as to the innocence or guilt of the defendant.
But, can I truly do that knowing that I have been wrong before and that the consequences of getting this wrong could destroy the life of an innocent person.
I always have been a big believer that it is better that a guilty man go free than an innocent man be goaled for a crime he did not commit.
I don’t know but it’s an interesting question and just another of the bees in my bonnet.
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
The Biggest Burger in the World @ Cavendish Cafe & General Store
Now I was talking to a friend tonight and being excited about this blog I mentioned the link that I had to the new KFC burger (early post), and was alerted to this monster burger and best of all its Australian.
its costs $38.90,weighs 4kg and takes 20 minutes plus to prepare
The bread rolls are specially made in nearby Warnambool, just down the road from beautiful Port Fairy and Tower Hill,
You can find the Cavendish Cafe & General Store
26 Scott Street
Cavendish 3314
P: 5574 2395
F: 5574 2257
Contact: Ros Duffin
Now since all this ho har about bloggers stealing respectable media outlets news and passing it off as their own I want to acknowledge that the Herald Sun covered this story five days ago and I will even link to the original story. I however was alerted to this story by a friend and posted based on prior content, not that I need to expalin myself as I am not charging for content or misrepresenting said content so there.
I did say I had some bees in the bonnet.
From the weird and wonderful New KFC burger
I used to a long time ago, in what now appears to be a far distant galaxy, work for Kentucky Fried Chicken aka K.F.C, now today while surfing the net I stumbled upon this little gem. I can not verify to it's authenticity however it's a talking piece none the less, the link to the original story below.
linked from http://consumerist.com/
Maybe there is justice afterall
Just a small response to todays article below, maybe some times there is justice after all , but I doubt this little piece from CBS Interactive, will really help any of the victims economic recovery, however it does seem some what appropriate that the death penalty is now on the table so to speak, when you consider the possible suicides that Madoff's actions may have caused.
Report: Madoff Says He's Dying Of Cancer
Is there justice in this world
Governments around the world have pumped billions of taxpayers dollars into economies around the world, thousands if not millions have lost their jobs, savings decimated and the stock markets flattened, but what of the people who caused this economic crisis? Well apart from a few high profile cases that have come to light, I believe not a lot, I suppose many have lost their jobs, but I suspect for the real culprits of this crisis it's business as usual, back to the greed machine, profits at all cost and not a regard for the people, families and communities whom may never recover.
So have the rules changed ? a little Can this happen again? more than likely Is there Justice ?
Well it would appear that if your a greedy company or organisation you can call the shots and the government, the justice system and even the courts are more than willing to help you screw the little guy.
1.92 million dollar fine for sharing 24 songs on internet the, US Justice department supports this
"the harms caused by copyright infringement" on the Internet include limiting "a copyright owner's ability to distribute legal copies of copyrighted works. The public in turn suffers from lost jobs and wages, lost tax revenue, and higher prices for honest purchasers of copyrighted works."
So it's OK for some of America's largest organisations to rape and pillage the world financial infrastructure with out any recourse for their greedy and irresponsible actions , how ever if you steal 24 * 99 cent music mp3 from one of these companies, whoa the full force of American Justice will steal your livelihood.
now don't get me wrong, stealing is wrong, it's just should the punishment not fit the crime ?
so back to the original question "is there justice in this world" ?
Well I don't think so, but if your a huge multi national conglomerate things are still looking rosy for a while anyway, because unlike us (the little guy) the people it appears that we only vote for our politicians, the company lobby and buy them.
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Monday, 24 August 2009
Did a search for Poundcore today
I am very proud of what Mark has and continues to achieve and so as a way of promoting Mark here are all the links or you could do as I did and Google Poundcore
Reverbnation
A good story about China
Now I have to admit I have a few bees floating around that relate to China and no doubt given time you too will be exposed, but in all fairness some times I read a story that paints China in a far better light than the grey storm clouds that I see and therefor I think I owe a duty to comment on the good as well as the bad.
From the telegraph.co.uk written by Peter Foster:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterfoster/100007311/a-brush-with-the-law-in-china/
From the telegraph.co.uk written by Peter Foster:
Peter Foster moved to Beijing in March 2009. He was formerly the Daily Telegraph's South Asia Correspondent based New Delhi from 2004-2008. He is married with three children.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peterfoster/100007311/a-brush-with-the-law-in-china/
Losing the battle
Now this is a real interesting article that I found while looking for bees in my bonnet , now this is not at all what I intended when I started this blog but it is so appropriate that I just have to link to it .
http://vtbeekeeper.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/losing-the-battle/
http://vtbeekeeper.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/losing-the-battle/
A new tweet sorry mean post
Well I have had this blog going for over 3 months now and I have done very little to update, improve or even post, however that is about to change. I have been busy acquainting my self with Twitter and this has re shaped my ideas on what I hope to achieve with this blog.
Now I am not going to again bore you with an explanation of what Twitter is www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o , because many others have already done a fine job , so if you don't already know what Twitter is follow the above link.
Now to my point and its only taken me 2 paragraphs to get there, is I think that micro blogging is going to be a rather large component of the future of the internet, be it Twitter, Facebook or the next big thing "Think Google Wave". So with that said I have added a stream of my Twitter updates to this blog.
I also plan to post links to stories and articles from the internet that I find interesting, I would also recommend always bothering to read the comments at the end of most articles as these can sometimes be more interesting than the original article and if you see a comment from RORYBAUST you'll know I felt strongly about that one as well.
I'm a realist and know that I may well be the only reader of this blog and for that matter my Twitter posts but at least I can say that I am participating in the new medium and I feel a little empowered that I can unlike our friends in countries such as China, Burma, Iran and many more.
Friday, 3 July 2009
Israel used human shields: Amnesty
A report is the Melbourne Age today details a report from Amnesty about the 3 week invasion of Palestine by Israel, nothing new to report, however I note that Israel States that they are misunderstood, and that they are guilty of nothing but defending their homeland and this in the context of War can seem fair except if you deny the rights of the other party to defend themselves.
Palestine is an illegal Jail.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Time To Start
I have decided to begin this blog as a way of letting the bees go, I am a person whom is touched , angered and often dismayed by the world and the people whom inhabit it, so as a bit of therapy I have decided to write of these issues as and if they crop up.
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