lifeasdaddy

lifeasdaddy - The World Bank gets Wolfowitzed.

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz cleans house and installs the right type of people.

[ tip from Col. Lang ]

lifeasdaddy - Noir pots and kettles

I was just over reading Frank Arrigo's blog where he mentions his spot at Hill & Knowlton's Breakfast Bytes back in early 2005.  As I mentioned here on my old blog that's what got me blogging.

If you're a regular reader, you already know what a poor speller I is was are am.  And I don't want to be the pot calling the kettle black, but... there was a funny blooper made in the comment to Frank's blog post.  The commenter chides Frank for some supposedly poor grammar (I thought Frank was being mildly ironical) by starting out,

"Not to be a grammar natzi, but.."

That one had me doubled over with laughter.  Irony upon irony.  Nazi. 

That faux pas also reminded me of a scene in the funniest movie I ever saw, The Producers.

The Franz Liebkind character played (in 1968) by the incomparable Kenneth Mars meets Bialystock and Bloom:

LIEBKIND
                   (flies into an
                   indignant rage)
            That's because you were taken in by
            that verdampter Allied propaganda.
            Such filthy lies.  But nobody said
            a bad vord about Winston Churchill,
            did they?  Oh no, Vin Vit Vinnie!
                   (he gestures V for victory)
            Churchill, vit his cigars and his
            brandy and his rotten paintings.
            Couldn't even say Nazi.  He would
            say Narzis, Narzis.  Ve vere not
            Narzies, ve vere Nazis.  But let me
            tell this, and you're getting it
            straight from the horse, Hitler vas
            better looking than Churchill, he
            vas a better dresser than Churchill,
            had more hair, told funnier jokes,
            and could dance the pants off
            Churchill!

{ ref scene 39 from the screenplay }

lifeasdaddy - One hot coke please.

I once worked in a hotel where a customer of Chinese origin would come into the restaurant and order a hot coke with his meal.

This was created by putting some coca-cola into a glass, and then placing the glass and contents under the hot  steam nozzle of an espresso machine.

This reminiscence was prompted by reading about this hot coke and ginger drink.

lifeasdaddy - Forecasting. Crowds, small groups, estimates and guesses.

Last year I read James Surowiecki's 2004  book The Wisdom of Crowds.  To nutshell it, he propounds that taking an aggregate or often an average of a large number of persons' prediction will be more accurate that that of any one person. The wisdom of the crowd being greater than that of the one "smartest" person, or the one most experienced person.   It's an engaging read.  Probably in ytour local lending library by now or even remaindered like the copy I bought.

I just checked, and there's plenty of work going on in the field particularly related to predicting markets.  Yahoo!'s scientist David Pennock has been blogging about it, and Yahoo! recently hosted a confab about it. 

On Dr. Pennock's profile, it's also interesting to note how this computer scientist has written his email in code to defend against spam harvesting:

PENNOCKD   -a@tt-   YAHOO-INC   d.o.t   COM

and DP   -at@at-   NNOCK   d.ot.   COM

[some pointage from T Cowan ]

lifeasdaddy - The Sydney Morning Herald business section: Didn't employ many journos to publish today.

Today's Sydney Morning Herald 3-page business sections starts on page 17.   It's overwhelmingly comprised of agency and syndicated pieces. Not much from real live (named) Australian journalists, in Sydney or elsewhere.

All three stories below the fold on page 17 (right) are bought in.

Let's look at the tally for the entire three pages.  Syndicated or agency content denoted by ##.

PAGE 17:

Alinta no tlakin gbut Macquarie Bank says we can work it out - Michael Evans

Harmey Norman rings up $2.7b - Vanda Carson

CanWest deal raises heat on Ten sell-off - Ian Austen The new York Times ##

Ads everywhere - and it's going to get worse - Louise Story the New york Times ##

Hasting Funds boss calls it quits - Agencies ##

PAGE 18: Business Focus column - anon.

Plenty of winners as sharemarket sets a new record - Agencies ##

Mini energy utility successfully lists -  Agencies ##

Delay for Hospira's takeover of Mayne - Agencies ##

Telstra jumped broadband gun: rivals - Matt O'Sullivan

Graincorp looking to increased exports - Agencies ##

super helps us to No. 1 in managed funds - Agencies ##

PAGE 19:

Macs on the march in Birmingham, Taiwan - Bloomberg with agencies ##

Retailers get on the noe - and shoppers like it - Yian Mul  The Washington Post

GM could buy into Malaysia's Proton car - Soraya Permatasari and Angus Whitley - Bloomberg ##

Achievements show Saunders is no reject - Rebecca urban

NZ printer's Ausie bid gets the nod. - Agencies  ##

It's not that I mind reading business news from overseas, or about foreign interests.  In fact I like it.  I just don't like paying good money for a newspaper that has been cobbled together from itsy-bitsy stuff that some editor has downloaded from the internet.

I wonder if the Fairfax Media CEO David Kirk thinks this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Good to save costs?  Or you can't fool all of the people all of the time?

lifeasdaddy - The treasures of a 3-year old boy.

A few months ago Gabrielle made a Treasure Box for Edward. A box in which he could keep whichever precious things he likes.

It's made from a cardboard gift box wrapped in starred paper and strips of gold foil.

Edward likes taking the box of treasures with him to various places around the house. 

Let's have a look and see what's inside.

A Christmas star table place setting.  A painted macaroni and fish necklace which we made a play group.  A set of activity cards obtained as a giveaway on an air flight: This has a Nemo theme. A strapless wristwatch which is no longer working presented to Edward by Caroline from a jewellery shop in Roseville, an empty watch band case, likewise a gift from Caroline.

A Nemo pencil case, Nemo magic slate, a battery operated milk frother, a toy costume ring, a blue ribbon with gold foil writing.

Some Nemo coloured pencils, a set of IKEA coloured pencils, some coloured ribbon and a key.

lifeasdaddy - I impersonate a pizza guy

Ed's cousin Thomas has appeared in these pages before.

It was 5.20pm.  The phone rang.  When I answered, my sister-in-law said, "It's Lauren ____ of 21 ____ Street, ______ here.  Thomas would like to order a pizza from the pizza guy.  I said, "OK".

Me: Hello, what's your name?

Him:  Thomas.

Me:  What sort of pizza would you like to order?

Him:  (after a long pause and prompting from Lauren)  Ham and pineapple.

Me:  Certainly.  What's your address please?

Him:  21 ________ Street, _______.

Me:  Thanks very much.  How many pizzas do you want?  Two or one?

Him:  One please.

Me:  That will be ten dollars Thomas, will you have the money ready?

Him:  Yes.

Me:  OK.  I'll make your pizzas now.

ends.

lifeasdaddy - Australia Day: Celebrate What's Great

Australia Day is on January 26.

Microsoft have come up with a few comeptitions around the Australia Day theme, and have hired a satellite to take pictures across this wide, brown land during the celebrations.

Look up and smile.

[ tip from Frank Arrigo ]