Foreign aid that they could have done without

Seems that Australia’s aid programs in East Timor have delivered the Timorese a nasty surprise in the form of the cane toad.  The resilient and toxic toads, which have wreaked havoc across Australia, are believed to have hitched a ride on military vehicles.Since the arrival of cane toads arrival in Australia in the 1930s, they have spread from Queensland, where they were originally introduced to kill pests in the cane fields, to northern NSW and across into the Northern Territory.

I’m sure that Xanana Gusmao, Jose Ramos Horta and their compatriots will be somewhat less thankful for this gift from Australia than for all the military and police assistance we have provided and all that development aid since independence.

Maybe the Timorese people need to take up some new sports – like toad golf, toad hockey, etc?

Still cashing in on Princess Diana

Its been 11 years since she was killed in that Paris car crash, but someone has found yet another way to profit from her death.  Turns out the company that owns the car she died in wants it back – so they can sell it.

The car, which cost £70,000 new, could fetch as much as £1 million, according to press reports, and that informal offers to buy the wreck had come from all over the world, mainly the US.

Why would you want to buy a car wreck – just because someone famous died in it?  What is the motive for wanting it – for the memories of Diana?  More likely to put it on show and charge people for the privilege of gawking at it.  Perhaps cut up the back seat, seat belt and carpet and sell swatches of blood stains as souvenirs?

Suck shit fatboy

An inmate in the US is claiming he’s too fat to be executed, because the executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that the drugs used would be reduced in effectiveness due to his weight.

Richard Cooey, 41, is sentenced to die in the US state of Ohio for raping and murdering two young women in 1986. His execution is scheduled for October 14. Cooey is 170 cm tall and weighs 121 kg.

Tough shit, fatboy. My advice to the prison authorities is put him on a starvation diet, say no food for a month or so. Then when he reaches goal weight, strap him down and needle him.

Technorati Tags: Richard Cooey, death penalty, capital punishment, obesity

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

Haute cuisine

I’m on a roll now with food.

Posted at Aussie Bloggers about great moments in Australian takeaway food.

Went to a blogger meet at Albion Park ** and tried the deep fried Mars Bar for dessert.

Now, I give you this ….

Mmmm … creative use of Krispy Kreme donuts!!!

Source - A Hamburger Today.

** see the post dated 15 June, titled “I ate at the Aviator”

Technorati Tags: junk food

Oops - not shooting blanks

Open day at military barracks, you know, where they demonstrate all their weapons and other gadgets. I’ve been to a couple and they are quite interesting.

Near Carcassone in France on the weekend there was one such, and marines gave a demonstration of a hostage liberation exercise. Unfortunately their weapons were loaded with live ammunition rather than blanks. Result: 15 civilians and 2 soliders injured - 4 seriously, with 2 said to be critical.

One soldier had been detained, although no explanation was immediately forthcoming for why the wrong ammunition was loaded into weapons. A police spokesman said that investigators believed the deadly ammunition was loaded by mistake.

I wonder how long it took for the “oh shit, oh fuck” realisation to occur among the soldiers.

Technorati Tags: Fraqnce, Carcassone, military open day, live ammunition

Get a life, folks

I’m always baffled to see things like this.

Its people queueing up outside the new Apple Store due to open in Sydney tomorrow night at 5 pm. For fuck’s sake, its a computer, phone and music players store!

Get a life people, especially:

• Rochelle Quantock - who came from Mebourne at 4 am this morning so she could get first position in the line
• Mike Kauffman - who flew in from the USA, and is a serial queuer, and estimates he has attended between 20 to 30 Apple store openings.
• Moyzsckya Belle - flew in from Brisbane only to find the first position had already been taken when he arrived outside the store at 8:25am. He has owned every version of iPod ever released by Apple, and he and his wife had almost 10 Mac computers between them.

Wonder if these people were among those who lined up similarly when Krispy Kreme first opened here?

Guns and snakes don’t mix

It is often said that most people who fall victim to snakes get bitten while attempting to kill them. Here’s another case where the snake beat someone trying to hunt it.

A woman was shot dead by her husband in Queensland this week while trying to flush out a brown snake that was hiding in their garage. Leanne Sleba and her husband Geoff had spotted the two-metre Eastern brown snake earlier in the night, but failed to find it. Worried about their children’s safety because they frequented the fridge in the garage, the couple returned later with a shotgun.

After a thorough search, they couldn’t find the snake, and were about to give up, when, according to a family member:

“Leanne started to walk away and she was about three or four metres from him and Geoff heard hissing and he looked down to see the snake on his foot.

“He’s either jumped, slipped….. and his finger hit the trigger and the gun went off.

“It hit Leanne,”

She died at the scene.

Toowoomba District Police Inspector Brett Schafferius said police deemed that the firearm accidentally discharged. Scientific investigations were undertaken and a report was being prepared for the coroner.

Call me suspicious, but how often do things like this eventually turn out to be much more than initially meets the eye?

Handyman tip #1: A gun is not a power tool

Ronald Long, of Deepwater in the US decided that using his gun was a good way of making a hole through the wall, which he needed to do in order to instal a satellite TV system at his home. He fired his gun from the inside of his home after several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.

Unfortunately, his wife, Patsy, was outside at the time. She was pronounced dead early on Saturday evening after being shot in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun.

The local sheriff’s department said a person involved in such a case normally would be charged with manslaughter, but that was up to the prosecutor.

“Once we complete a diagram of the incident, we will be submitting everything to the prosecuting attorney and let him decide if he wants to press criminal charges,”

the sheriff’s spokesman said.

Even if he escapes jail for killing his wife, Long is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, and should never be trusted with anything remotely dangerous, like power tools, let alone a gun!

Closer to God

An Air Canada flight from Toronto to London had to make an emergency landing in Ireland after a medical emergency … apparently the co-pilot suffered a breakdown, and had to be removed from the cockpit and restrained by other crew members.

According to a passenger:

“He was very, very distraught. He was yelling loudly at times,”

“He was swearing and asking for God and very distressed. He basically said he wanted to talk to God.”

I suppose  for someone wanting to talk to God, he was in the right place - well, 10,000 metres or so closer than if he’d been on the ground.

Seriously though, wouldn’t you shit yourself as a passenger had you seen this happen on your own flight?