farmdoc's blog post number 622

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. the F1 blogosphere was awash (can a blogosphere be awash?) with posts about the Australian Grand Prix being without a naming rights sponsor 2½ months before this year’s event [1]. All indicators point to the event being moribund – if not dead. But the government continues its life support. Why?

2. in last Sunday’s Sunday Age, its production editor, a Mr Coulter, wrote an article advocating buses to replace Melbourne’s trams [2]. As you didn’t mention the buses’ fuel, your view is not worth the paper it’s written on, sir.

3. this Age piece confirmed the benefit of businesses having easy-to-remember phone numbers [3]. They’re useful for individuals too. Mine ends in 1230.

4. Nutrition Diva wrote that frozen vegetables lose little nutritional value during freezing; and in the off-season they may be more nutritious than fresh vegies from far away [4]. What about the packaging?

5. this ABC News item tells of 1,300 people – labelling them ‘peace activists’ – who are in Egypt hoping to cross into Gaza to protest against Israel’ economic blockade of Gaza [5]. What – no mention of Gilad Shalit? How very convenient of these bleeding heart do-gooders to overlook the Hamas’s barbarian treatment of him, let alone its stated aim of eliminating a UN member state. A pox on all 1,300 of them.

6. treehugger.com put up an item about San Francisco offering free water to the public [6]. It’s happening, PJ. Not yet at the global tipping point, but every step’s one step towards it. Roll on, GlobalTap.

7. also in treehugger was a story of a group of girls in northern England who’ve started a campaign to make bicycling stylish for girls – who are under represented among cyclists [7]. This is one for you, Meg. Roll on, BikeBeauty.

8. yesterday my fellow Mole Creek resident Pete the Maremma [8] turned seven years old. Happy birthday, Petey Boy. Mate.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week – and year.

farmdoc's blog post number 525

The Last Post. Wikipedia says it was originally a bugle call used in British Army camps. Its name comes from the inspection of each camp sentry post at day’s end. Playing a bugle call signalled a post had been inspected and its military day had ended. In the 19th century the Last Post was incorporated into military funerals in all Commonwealth of Nations countries where it’s played as a final farewell symbolising the duty of the dead soldier is over and he can rest in peace. Also it’s played in public ceremonials commemorating war dead, e.g. on Remembrance Day and Anzac Day. And it’s played each night at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. So every single time the Last Post publicly sounds out, is a solemn, meaningful and contemplative occasion. Yet last week the Australian War Memorial announced that, due to budget cuts, its nightly Last Post closing ceremony will henceforth be sponsored (by telecommunications company TransACT). If this isn’t a travesty, I don’t know what is. I can’t accept that public money can’t be found to pay a bugler for a few minutes each day, 365 days each year. Commercialisation of the nightly ceremony, however tasteful, is sacrilege. Blasphemy. A gratuitous trumpeting (pun intended) of the capitalism paradigm. All concerned should hang their heads in shame. But they won’t. For they have no soul.