Numerology

I was pleased today to get the CD I’d ordered a week or so ago. Its by one of my favourite bands of the early 80’s - ie when I was at uni and seeing bands a lot, The Numbers. They were always worth seeing, especially given the fantastic singer and bass player they had. Bet you can guess who that was.

I love this sort of music - power-pop is my favourite genre, hence why bands like The Numbers, Sunnyboys, The Riptides, Spy vs Spy and the like were great to see and listen to. And I still like it, even now The New Pornographers are probably my favourite current band - and yay, I have tickets to see them in Sydney in October.

This music I think stands the test of time. Sometimes the musicians don’t (witness The Rolling Stones for example), but I found this article about The Numbers when the new CD was released, and this picture of Annalisse Morrow shows she’s aged quite well, considering its getting on for 30 years since the photo on the CD cover would have been taken.

OK, I’ve listened to the CD in full twice now, plus a few random songs. Excellent!!!

Technorati Tags: The Numbers, Numerology, Annalisse Morrow, Chris Morrow, Sunnyboys, The Riptides, Spy vs Spy, power pop, New Pornographers

Expensive typos

You do need to be careful with what you type. It can be embarassing - eg working for the “pubic service” instead of the “public service”. And it can be expensive, but I doubt any of us have made a typo as expensive as this one a stockbroker made today in Sydney.

It wiped 85 points off the All Ordinaries index, and 82 points off the S&P/ASX200, prompting fears of a market crash.

The broker sold a series of QBE share parcels at between 0.1 cents and 0.2 cents per share at 2.20pm today, effectively taking the entire $20.2 billion market value of the global insurance giant out of the Australian Securities Exchange. QBE was trading at above $22.85 per share at the time.

Of course, many traders took advantage of this, making offers to buy the shares at 0.2 cents each.

The Stock Exchange immediately suspended QBE shares from trading, and some 9 minutes after the error was made, the Exchange cancelled all trades in QBE shares below $22.20.

Many stockbrokers said they recognised the plunge immediately as an error.

“There will be some red faces but the reality is there are human beings who push buttons,”

“These things are accidental.”

said Howard Elton of Intersuisse Stockbroking.

Mr Elton compared the gaffe to a pilot who overshoots a runway and lands a plane in the dirt.

“It doesn’t do his personal reputation anything great,”

he said.

I’m suspecting the guy who made the mistake went hom immediately to change his underwear, and will lie low for a while, hoping the whole thing will blow over quickly. Maybe he’s hoping for a market crash to happen for real to distract attention of market colleagues from his stuffup.

Technorati Tags: QBE Insurance, Australian Stock Exchange, ASX 200, All Ordinaries index

Judge tells lawyer to stick it up his arse

A barrister has tried to exclude Greeks from being jurors in a Victorian rape trial because of a “common misunderstanding” they like anal sex. He told the judge that his submission was in fairness to the victim, a Greek woman. He said there was a perception in the community that “Greeks like anal sex” and that the woman might be seen as compliant and “in fact wanting it”.

When the judge refused the application, the lawyer argued again to exclude Greeks in fairness to his client. ” I don’t want a Greek juror empathising with a Greek complainant (the woman), your honour.” he said.

The judge refused the requests to exclude jurors on the basis of race or nationality.

Technorati Tags: rape, anal sex, Greek, juror selection

Olympics drug cheats easier to detect?

Apparently athletes are using drugs like Viagra and Cialis to improve their performance - and I don’t mean their horizontal dance performance.

Drug testers say they are regularly turning up traces of the drugs in urine samples they examine, but the drugs are not on the sports list of banned substances. It is thought the drug helps the delivery of oxygen to muscles. Some experts believe it could help in events requiring spurts of power, like sprinting. Others think it might help endurance athletes, especially at altitude.

At least in the male athletes this will be easy to detect, no drug tests needed.

Dr Don Catlin, an American anti-doping expert, said:

“There has actually been a study in mountaineers, people climbing at high altitude on or off of Viagra, showing that it does produce marginal improvements,”

Not only that, it gives them an extra piton to use if they get in trouble during the climb, perhaps another brake bar on their rappel rack?

Technorati Tags: Viagra, Cialis, drug cheats, anti-doping

Baby names - NZ style

I sometimes have a laugh about bogan names people give to their kids. I don’t know what the New Zealand equivalent of bogans is, but there are people there who sure like to call their children all sort of weird shit.

One girl, who lives in New Plymouth on the west coast of the north island, is named “Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii”. Her parents have been ordered by a judge in the Family Court to change it. The court was told that the girl was so mortified by her name that she had not told any of her friends her real name.

The judge said he is appalled by the judgement of some parents in naming their children. He says in NZ there are children named Midnight Chardonnay, Number 16 Bus Shelter and Violence.

Wow, I have to wonder how much part hallucogenic chemicals played in these kids’ parents decisions.

Technorati Tags: New Zealand, child names, Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii

Darwin Award, anyone?

Another likely candidate for one.

An 18 year old man in his undies was playing “chicken” with cars on a Melbourne freeway on-ramp when he was hit by a van. He is critically ill in hospital.

Police say they are dismayed at the “utter stupidity” of the 18-year-old and say it was lucky nobody was killed.

Technorati Tags: Darwin Awards, stupid people

170k

Another 10,000 visits have rolled around, this time in only 27 days (compared to 39 for the previous 10k).

All the usual suspects have appeared in my search logs - nude Hermione Grainger still being #1 (and #2) on the hit parade. The only new thing I can see there is “firefox 3 crap” - obviously some people aren’t happy with Firefox 3.

Now for the weirdest searches in the last month - “wank on my chips” …..hmmm, not on mine you don’t, errr yuk!!!!

Batman - The Dark Knight

Saw “The Dark Knight”, the latest Batman movie, today. I’m not a fan of the Batman series but my son isa, and he talked me into taking him. It was well worth it, by far the best of the Batman movies, and the performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker was stunning.

Technorati Tags: Batman, movies, The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger

Not an iPhone

I got a new toy today. One of these.

Anyone up for this?

A new tourist attraction soon opening in Darwin will allow you to spend 15 minutes underwater with a saltwater crocodile.

You get the protection of a 4cm thick acrylic tube.

Technorati Tags: Darwin, crocodile