Breaking up is hard to do

The powers that be declared 'let there be two seperate divisions' and it was so, but there was much wailing and knashing of teeth.

Those who had not been consulted asked 'Why Me?' but were told to leave and cross the mighty Lake at the middle of the Kingdom, to set up store in a new place.
Those who were in power but fighting on foreign land came back and were newly crowned a Knight of the Kingdom but was unaware that they had been ostracized and their people were fractitious and unhappy.
The Head of all Divison ran from those who who had been marked and cast to the other side, abdicating responsibility to their sucessor and setting up her own people in their rightful places by her side.

And there was much confusion as to who was responsible for ordering the stationary, or coordinating information and delegating tasks.

The Other White Flu

Well, my brother in law is awaiting his final lab results. Will it be H1N1? Will it be the boring old version of the flu? Will it be a brand new superflu, previously unnamed (and hereby known as Murphy's Flu)?

Time will tell. Here is a snippet from 'New Scientist' that kind of explains what the fuss is all about http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/05/so-is-it-a-pandemic-or-not.html

On an unrelated note, my two favorite bank robbers are apparently living it up in China. The girl's sister facebooked (is that a verb?) her status, enjoying the sun and a local asian beer.

Of course, I'm still not convinced that it's robbery when you actually give someone the money and they run off with it. It's kind of your own fault - I'm pretty sure I couldn't walk up to someone who asked for me for money, give them a couple of thousand and then chase them two hours later with police to demand it back and ask for them to be charged because I was only meant to give them two dollars.

Favorite story of the year nomination #1

The NZ couple who, when a Westpac bank error gave them $100,000 instead of $10,000, put their gas station into recievership and ran for the hills.

Interpol is chasing them - last I heard they were in China/Korea. I can smell a movie deal already!!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE54K54520090521?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Poor Simon

Am reading about the libel case in the UK against the British Chiropractic Association... and while on the one hand, it's a pretty awful story, on the other it's made me realise the wealth of information and expertise that people are willing to put on blogs and lend to others, which is kind of cool. It's a whole other universe out there people! Web worlds colliding.

Highlights from Hansard (or 'why am I earning less than these people')

Senator ABETZ—I do not need to know the matters, but do you take it upon yourself to proactively encourage the minister and the government to consider certain matters, or do you
see your role as just responding to requests from the minister?

Senator Carr—Proactively.

Senator ABETZ—I know the previous chief scientist saw that as part of his role. As I understand it, the position is as an independent Chief Scientist. Is that right?

Prof. Sackett—That is absolutely correct.

Senator ABETZ—That is why I think it was not helpful for the minister to intervene in trying to answer for you and I would like to hear from the independent Chief Scientist.

Senator Carr—You are an absolute prat.

Prof. Sackett—I am pleased to answer the question.

Senator ABETZ—Chair, if you want standards in this committee then the minister has to abide by them.

CHAIR—I do not know whether that it is unparliamentary as such.

Senator Carr—You are getting on your high horse. You asked the question whether the Chief Scientist acts proactively and I can assure the committee that she does. She has a standing invitation, which she exercises, to actually contact me and other ministers, which she does regularly.

Senator ABETZ—The independent Chief Scientist should be given the courtesy of being able to answer for herself without a bully boy minister trying to intervene.

CHAIR—Senator Abetz!

Senator ABETZ—Chair, if you allow that sort of description of me then you have got to allow it back the other way. I should withdraw that comment about the minister, and I do, and I would invite the minister to do the same.

*And so it continues. Boring I know. I had to read this stuff for two hours today so though I would spread the pain. I had flashbacks to 'teaching' in London with me being the CHAIR (although those kids probably wouldn't have used the word 'proactively')
** Or the word prat. I can think of a few others they probably would have substituted....

Hey, I've got my new boots on and suddenly everything is alright...

Big thank you to my aunt, who express posted her AirCast boot down from the mountains and saved me in excess of $250 (and to the physio at Woden Valley Hospital (you know the one) who gave me free wedges and a air pump and let me use his phone to call my sister rather than paying at the public phones).

So now am clumping instead of crutching. Looks like a robot foot - almost makes me wish I was working with kids at the moment. What with a robot foot and the ability to blow up stuff and make slime, I would be the coolest adult EVER!

Which leads me to think of some of the other benefits to rupturing your achilles tendon:

• It cuts down on the amount of tea/coffee you can drink unless you are prepared to stand on one leg next to the kettle and skull. It's incredibly hard to carry hot beverages on one leg. I wouldn't recommend trying it, just trust me. It doesn't end well. While this may not seem like a benefit, it's probably a good thing for someone who would otherwise be continually drinking the stuff. Continually.
• The bath vs shower argument gets tipped toward the bath side.
• Instead of chasing after other people, they have to come and get things off you so you have a legitimate reason for telling people where to go.

Budget freedom, sweet freedom

Working in a proper public service job has given a whole new tinge to the Federal Budget announcement. In fact, it's almost exciting... almost. (I'm still a little bitter about the fact I and my sister both miss out on the $900 'thanks-for-being-Australian' bonus because we didn't pay tax in 2008.)

I noticed that science has done ok out of the whole thing, which is nice - and as long as I don't work to hard and earn too much money, my situation won't get any worse. But I think my favorite bit of budget-reporting so far has been a word-image of the Treasurer's speech - especially when you compare it with last year's speech. There are some obvious differences.

Achilles and his tendon

Been without internet for a while after injuring myself in the competitive maelstrom that is Thursday night Social Netball and sitting at home, unable to move. Turns out I'd ruptured my achille's tendon - to fix it, they cut a slit in the back of your calf, gather all the destroyed muscle fibres together and then reattach them back to where they should be. Sounds more painful than it actually was.

Thought I'd do a bit of research before my operation (knowledge being power and all that) and found the statistic that men are 20 times more likely to rupture their achille's than women. That means in a room of 100 people with ruptured achilles, on average only five of them would be female.

Not sure what that really means - I suspect a genetic weakness in my family, seeing how my brother ruptured his achilles playing cricket, my other brother has had continuous problems with shoulders and my cousin had a knee reconstruction in his early 20's... I was doomed from birth.