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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 8, 2012 10:10:20 GMT 10
"Is Seymour there? Last name Butz."
I googled seymor butts and got a bit of a surprise ...
I think that whole british shock-humor thing is popular because it's seen to be deflating the lofty and important. Then bozos like the little britain guys go and direct the same sort of sneer at everyday people, and the results aren't pretty.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 8, 2012 10:16:44 GMT 10
Been pondering lately the occasional calls for the ABC to be sold.
I guess I'm fine with that, provided that an equal amount of public funding is removed from sports, nationally - and annually. A billion dollars' reduction in all annual sport-related funding, going forward. If there isn't enough, then I want to see beaches (i.e. assets) sold to developers to make up the difference.
And if we're really all about the free market, and getting the government out of making broadcasting decisions, then I'm up for that too - so I'd very much like to see all broadcast spectrum sold to the highest bidder, regardless of application. No assumptions that there will be three commercial TV broadcasters - that's just a great big subsidy to TV broadcasters to get the spectrum cheap. Nope. To heck with that. Let's see them compete with wifi providers. They say wireless is the future - let's see how it works.
I mean ... we need to be fair about this. They want the ABC gone, then sure. Just as long as those conditions apply.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 8, 2012 11:02:32 GMT 10
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 8, 2012 11:54:55 GMT 10
Regarding radio-station hoax calls ...
What saves these bozos from being charged with secretly recording a conversation? I was under the impression that doing such a thing in most australian states (all of them, I believe) can be a criminal act, and comes with some potentially very steep penalties (time and money).
I know that there are some defences (at least in the ACT), but the entertainment of thousands of people isn't one of them.
Maybe this would be a good test case?
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 8, 2012 12:02:08 GMT 10
How bolt quotes an article describing it: I hope Obama has the self-respect to cancel:PSY cursed Americans after a South Korean missionary was executed. His song “Dear American” sets the record straight.
“Kill those f***ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives/Kill those f***ing Yankees who ordered them to torture/Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers/Kill them all slowly and painfully,” he raps.
PSY is slated to perform for President Obama for a Christmas In Washington special to air on TNT Friday, December 21 Skipping over what the TNT event actually is ("performing for obama" is a bit of a stretch - it's a public concert which will go ahead regardless of whether obama turns up) The rest of the storyIn 2002, PSY participated in an anti-American concert after a U.S. military convoy struck and killed two 14-year-old South Korean schoolgirls during the Yangju highway incident. The soldiers involved in the incident were acquitted by U.S. military courts, which fueled a significant amount of anti-American sentiment in South Korea. During his performance, PSY lifted up a model of a U.S. amoured vehicle and smashed it against the stage.
In 2004, the South Korean translator and Christian missionary Kim Sun-il was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq after the South Korean government refused to withdraw its armed forces supporting the Iraq War. Although initial protests were only directed towards the South Korean government and towards terrorists in Iraq, anti-US military protesters decided to seize the moment to trigger a much larger wave of anti-Americanism. During a concert, PSY admonished the Iraqi kidnappers, condemned South Korea's former president Roh Mu-hyun, and also rapped the song "Dear American" by the South Korean rock band N.EX.T. The song was written to condemn the United States and its military for its role in the Iraq war. Although PSY's actions did not receive any significant international media coverage at that time, this changed after the media reported about it in early December 2012. On December 7, 2012, PSY issued an apology directed towards members of the U.S. military and to the American people.
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Post by angra on Dec 8, 2012 12:49:30 GMT 10
Think I'm going to have a Blot-free Christmas this year to keep me sane.
Goodbyee!
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 9, 2012 8:59:23 GMT 10
A few random thoughts on this prank-call thing.
I'm mostly with kennett - I think it would be wrong to go all lynch mob at the presenters who did the prank call. The result really was an extremely unlikely one and we don't know what other circumstances were in effect. The radio station did something daft, but this isn't the outcome they wanted, or could have even imagined. And let's not forget that the presenters didn't do this all by themselves - the whole company was behind it.
However ... perhaps this would be a good time for 2Day and others to have a think about this particular on-air entertainment device.
Many years ago, I contemplated carrying a recording device around with me. Not going into the details of why, I decided NOT to do it after I took a look at the relevant laws. Secretly recording a conversation attracts some pretty steep penalties - at least in the ACT (and the other states I happened to look at). It's something that the law takes very seriously. So I can't understand how a radio station can get around that. I would have thought that what they do is very illegal, and doesn't just attract fines - in the ACT you can go to prison for secretly recording a conversation (although there are a couple of defences)
Also, while the nurse's reaction was unlikely, prank calls are SUPPOSED to cause embarrassment. Their whole premise is that somebody is taken advantage of, for the amusement of others. It's cheap entertainment at somebody's expense, for the amusement of many and the enrichment of a few. Nobody's day is improved by being pranked by a radio station, and I suspect that no radio station ever goes back to make amends with their targets, or even to find out how they're doing. This might just be one of those very rare moments when we get to find out what the consequences _were_.
Let's face it - it's basically just bullying. It's the powerful picking on somebody who can't (within the law) respond, and it's done for entertainment and profit.
So while I agree that this one's best not pursued as the crime of the century ... maybe the next one should be.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 9, 2012 9:02:24 GMT 10
"Think I'm going to have a Blot-free Christmas this year to keep me sane"
That didn't last long.
The good news for you is that bolta will probably take a break anyway, and in the absence of moderators the site will pretty much go off the air.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 9, 2012 9:10:23 GMT 10
Who else is looking forward to november's spencer-temp? www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/Keen observers will not note that he has stopped putting the "trend line" on his graphs. I don't follow closely enough to know why, but it should be said that it was always just a O(3) polynomial that he fitted to the data each month - it wasn't any sort of actual prediction, and presumed (by definition) two turning points.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 9, 2012 9:16:59 GMT 10
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Post by jules on Dec 9, 2012 10:25:42 GMT 10
I'm a volunteer firefighter. I've never been called out to an MVA with any fatalities or serious injuries, but they have counseling services available via a variety of methods from chaplaincy to psychologists. During our crew leader training we are given a bit of a heads up on potential PTSD. They tell us about specific things to look out for - changes in behaviour mainly, especially after serious events. Not as a diagnosis tool, but as a way of recognising when members of a brigade may have PTSD to some degree. If you're taking crews out you should know the members (unless they are new members) well enough to pick when somethings not right. Then its a matter of encouraging them to get serious help if they need it and being there to hear them vent if they don't.
On the other hand we had to provide support for a drowning/recovery once - a young man on a holiday with mates - footy trip or school or something. His father was on the trip too.
That was fucked. Even now it upsets me a bit. I don't swim at that waterhole anymore.
I have been to MVAs where I've given first aid and emotional support to people, and thats a great feeling. But the other side of it - fatalities and serious injuries that are life threatening or life changing - thats a whole other story, never had to deal with mangled people and blood everywhere. That drowning was bad enough.
These days PTSD is a big deal and even the military acknowledges it. Its part of an agencies duty of care to look after people at risk from it.
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Post by jules on Dec 9, 2012 10:33:06 GMT 10
Wrt the prank call.
The media reaction, especially the britisjh media, is over the top. I think alot of the motivation is that a pack of convicts dared joke about something to do with the royals. And the death is being exploited to vent that outrage at joking about the royals. I really doubt the british media give a stuff about the nurse - if they did then surely they'd have started some fund or something for her family.
Also a private hospital treating royalty should have some protocols in place to deal with that sort of thing - security of some sort. The hosp[ital admin should have had something in place that meant nurses, who are gonna be under stress anyway, and under more stress with a royal as a patient, don't have to deal with that sort of thing.
Its a tragic thing for her family tho. Thats really the sad thing. People have lost their mum.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on Dec 9, 2012 10:56:03 GMT 10
" I think alot of the motivation is that a pack of convicts dared joke about something to do with the royals"
Never underestimate the impact of nationalism. But I don't really know enough how it's being taken by the average rosbif on the street to really know how much of a beat-up it is.
"Also a private hospital treating royalty should have some protocols in place to deal with that sort of thing"
I was thinking the same thing. And it seems that they did, but the call came in before 6AM, and the normal reception staff (who might have had quite strict protocols) weren't on duty - so the nearest nurse picked up the phone (one can hardly ignore a ringing phone in a hospital!). All she did was put the call through to another nurse closer to the case (one assumes in the relevant ward). The actual response was actually very benign - no, you can't speak to her because she's asleep. Somehow THAT became "revealed critical information" and it went global (and at no point did anyone think to declare "get a grip, people". I honestly don't think anyone did anything "bad", even if it did suggest that a review of procedures wouldn't go astray. Middleton doesn't appear to have been fussed about the call itself.
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Post by jack on Dec 9, 2012 17:35:02 GMT 10
I'm fairly certain I heard the news presenter on ABC TV's evening news last night actually say Jacintha Saldanha was "Kate Middleton's nurse" or "the Duchess's nurse".
Yes, her actual nurse.
Obviously only true in the sense she was on duty at the time Her Highness was being treated in a fairly largish hospital.
The less reporting on this sad business, the better for everyone.
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Post by angra on Dec 10, 2012 4:49:54 GMT 10
Remember the same Brit papers that seem so incensed over the prank phone call mounted a name and shame campaign against paedophiles and got it wrong, This led to violence and much harm done to innocent people - including to a paediatrician, as some poms are too ignorant to know the difference.
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