— Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie

In my younger days I was very keen on living in the UK. Scotland mainly, but I like the rest of it as well. My family trace back there from most sides, and I felt a strong connection. Ultimately, even after marrying a Brit, I couldn’t stay there and had to leave 🙁

It especially bothered me that many Brits wanted to live in Australia/NZ.

Surely rather than having an unhappy Kiwi and an unhappy Pom, they could swap places and be in the country they prefer? Wouldn’t that benefit everyone?

Why not have an international swap register, where people who otherwise wouldn’t qualify for residency or citizenship could swap places with another person?

I could imagine it working very well between Australia/NZ and the USA, because neither country is represented much in the other…

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BTW, although this blog has been a bit sporadic – and nobody reads it – I just realised it was 10 years old this last June. Hurrah!

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There has been a recent boom of websites that facilitate the sharing of private possessions – accommodation, tools, caravans… I have not come across such a service for books. People tend to be very possessive of books, and extra proud of their personal libraries. I foresee a new trend, where people allow their books to be borrowed. All we need is a process that ensures you get your books back (timely, un-damaged) and that you get some sort of karma/reward/fame/cudos for doing so.

I just wrote this on Facebook in response to a friend’s photo of her bookshelves:

My shelves are similarly groaning. I think the time has come for personal/public libraries, where respectful people get to borrow from personal libraries. Few of my books are available at local public libraries, or even inter-library loans. Especially powerful if the personal libraries are themed…

I’d love to know the ratio – how many book titles exist in a town/suburb/city that are not offered in the local public libraries? I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 100/1 or much greater.

Cataloging is easy, with barcode scanners available for $10 or so. I have used the CueCat for my 1000+ books. 649 are listed at LibraryThing (very easy to achieve).

But how to make sure your books come home unharmed? You could just copy the AirBNB system, or perhaps a $50 deposit?

I would love to share my books…

 

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I understand that it could easily be achieved digitally, but I doubt there will ever be a better, easier or more rewarding experience that browsing through real hardcopy books that fit your area of interest.

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When I was little I was told that I could have been heir to a castle in Ireland. As the eldest son of the eldest son (repeat, repeat, repeat etc) it kinda made sense. When my grandfather was a young, poor NZ farmer, he inherited Donagh House, near Lisnaskea in Northern Ireland. The catch was he needed to pay back-taxes, and so it slipped out of our family’s hands.

Here’s all I could find online, starting with it being worth £253 in 1876. It is now listed but derelict. I figure I will reclaim it if I win Lotto…

 

253_pounds_1876 listed

 

The O.S. Memoirs of the 1830s noted several good dwelling houses with farms attached in the Parish of Galloon. Donagh House was one such dwelling and at that time it was unoccupied following the death of the owner, a William Noble Esquire. A two-storey, five-bay, double-pile country house with an attractive Gibbsian door surround, it has been empty since the 1970s and is in a very poor condition. Reminiscent in many ways of Rossconor House (see p. 63), it occupies a very prominent, elevated position and could assume pride of place once more.

These three pics are from Flickr – click on them for full size:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75077138@N08/6884017756
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75077138@N08/7030116571
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75077138@N08/7030117447

 

donagh_house_3

donagh_house_2

 

donagh_house_1

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Politicians are often hypocrites to some degree – where they dictate the lives of the common man while receiving finer things themselves. I would like to see a new trend where candidates promise to live in our world more, so they can feel our pain and make changes based on seeing things through commoner eyes:

  • Public health – promise to always use public health services, even if it means being on a waiting list
  • Public schooling – promise not to send your kids to private schools
  • Drive a regular automobile – either make all government vehicles low-key and cost-effective, or give politicians are basic payment to cover car costs
  • Work our hours – parliament is only in session for part of the year, because the rest of the time MPs are supposedly working in their electorate. Make sure they can account for those hours, so we know they work 40 hours x 58 weeks per year
  • Public transport – use of business class flights and limos should be limited to where they need to be fresh when they arrive for work reasons.
  • Renewable energy – start using solar power at home and/or only buy renewable energy when it is available

I’m not advocating these as rules or standards – I’m just saying that if a politicians pledges to do one or more of the above, they might get a lot more votes.

 

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It won’t be long before we are reading our news on tablets much bigger than 11 inches. They will be thin, light and quite likely bendy for those that want to roll it up (like a newspaper!)

I would like an app that takes up the full screen, with a column down the left that shows the headlines:

news

Of course colours can be changed, and the headlines could be longer, or have a second line of info.

Above the headlines would be a dropdown box for selecting the category of news (or all) I want to read.

To the right, when you click on the headline, will be a paragraph or dot point summary of the news item – along with one pic if there is one. For me that would be sufficient most of the time:

  • Weighs 4.3 kilos at birth
  • Kate is well
  • Name is yet to be announced
  • Still in hospital
  • England is celebrating

And below that would be a button to click on for the full story. That story would take up the entire screen. Swipe it to go back to the headlines and summary.

I think it is obvious that, for me, knowing if a story is factual or not (or a mix) is important. As well as knowing how old the story is, and if the headline is referring to an update to an ongoing story.

Behind the scenes I would like to rule out types of stories that I don’t want to read. For example, some I would choose:

  • Car fatalities involving less than 5 people
  • Third-world tragedies where less than 200 people die or 1000 are directly affected
  • Political opinion pieces
  • Funerals
  • Somebody is about to go to trial
  • Jury is deliberating

 

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I have my own ideas of how to improve politics in Australia

These 25 ideas come from the 21st Century Australia Party, easily the best we have outside of Labour / Coalition / Greens / Democrats.

I’m not that keen on how their leader promotes himself, but he might be an MP soon. My thoughts in red.

1. A new 21st Century political system where voters get to vote directly on major policies instead of politicians. YES

2. Government spending removed from the hands of politicians and placed in the hands of an independent board, similar to how interest rate settings are set by the independent Reserve Bank of Australia. YES, as long as we vote on board members

3. A new modern day 21st century education curriculum to replace our current 19th century industrialisation era education system. One that is based on practical real life education with financial education as a necessity. Achieve a world leading education model without needing one extra cent of revenue and ensure the quality and pay of teachers is increased due to their significant importance in society from efficiency gains

4. The establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund to create an economic buffer. We already have the Future Fund…

5. Eliminate state governments so we have only two levels of government and not three. Therefore, critical areas such as health, education, transport and infrastructure will be under one national system. States could have state appointed ministers to look after the interest of the states. This will potentially save billions per month. It will eliminate gross inefficiencies of various state bodies overlapping and duplicating several layers of government bodies. Moreover, it will also ensure fewer elections. Keep the states, but hand over everything that has no need for being regional – like hospitals.

6. Review of the carbon tax and an environment policy whereby 100% of proceeds go direct to renewable energy funds. We support a healthy economy and a healthy environment.

7. Mining tax replaced with a simple Federal Royalty Tax that isn’t a significant burden with all proceeds going to a Sovereign Wealth Fund or Infrastructure Fund. Trees too!

8. Turn Australia Post into a bank to add competition to the big four banks and provide discounted home loans to Australians. YES! I have been saying this for a long time. Other countries have this, it can’t be hard to do.

9. Changes made to revise the power of corrupt unions and to reduce their abilities to abuse their power and cause further damage to national interests. Move unions to be under the ASIC and treated the same as corporate Australia plus ensuring unions pay tax. Laws should prevent them from interfering with Australian democratic system along with the limiting of funds by unions to support any political party and prevent the exploitation of workers.

10. The introduction of a fee for immigration visas to raise potentially $15 billion per annum and to reduce people smugglers business by removing the financial incentives by desperate people to pay people smugglers. There’s already fees…

11. Removal or reduction of payroll tax for companies with less than 200 employees, which accounts for almost 70% of the businesses in Australia. This will also stimulate job creation. Yes

12. Ban cigarette sales for those born in the year 2000 onwards to reduce the huge health liabilities smoking causes and ensure health education is a priority in the school curriculum to deal with obesity and other diet related issues. Totally agree, have been saying the same myself

13. Run a smart efficient productive government so as to create savings to reinvest into better services .By lowering certain taxes to stimulate growth we can actually increase total tax revenue. How?

14. Increase the tax free threshold to $22,500 p.a. We think it’s critical to give a boost to low income earners in Australia, a more productive way then creating welfare dependency via wealth distribution. Yes.

15. Remove contribution tax on superannuation for low income workers from 15% to nil. Helping all Australians become self-sufficient in retirement should be a priority and combined with proper financial education this can be achieved. Yes. Super should be optional, with incentives.

16. Look at ways to increase tax revenue to provide better services from taxes that don’t affect or penalise Australians. One example is a Visa tax, by offering a paid Visa to all qualifying immigrants including boat people. Boat people don’t have money…

17. Lower the company tax rate by creating a tiered tax rate starting at 15% for small business under $250,000 profit and up to 28.5% for profits over $100 million. Yes.

18. Provide Australia with a value for money National Broadband Network (NBN) that can be installed sooner and save $15 – $20 billion. I’m happy with the current one.

19. More water storage. In Australia drought in many areas is a perennial problem, so why not set a short- to long-term target of 100 new dams for Australia in the most environmentally friendly way.

20. Build a high speed rail system to take congestion off the roads, which are expensive to build and maintain. Initially starting from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, Newcastle to Canberra via Sydney and Geelong to Melbourne to Bendigo via Ballarat. This could also help Australia move into the 21st Century. Been in the works for a long time, now is the time to get started.

21. Turn Northern Australia into a special economic zone. Northern Australia is a perfect spot for an economic zone to boost Australia’s wealth. This would see lower taxes for workers and companies to move and live in these regions and start businesses. Stamp Duty relief also for home buyers in these regions to help solve the high cost of housing and to provide much needed workers. Yes. And send all boat people there. Give them work. Let them prove they are worthy of citizenship by working and learning English.

 22. A dramatic overhaul of the health industry to squeeze dramatic health service gains via innovation and technology without needing one extra cent of revenue to deliver. How? I propose a wellness model – doctors get paid (in part) based on how healthy they are keeping us.

23. To overhaul dole payments that after 90 days recipients must attend specialised career upskilling courses to receive further funding and improve their skills to help solve Australia’s skilled worker shortage and increase productivity so everyone feels they can contribute to the nations success.

24. Equip every student with new technology for learning such as iPads or tablets at school and access to leading edge learning apps to ensure we use technology to deliver better quality education for less cost to leave our 19th century education system behind.

25. Make the government transparent and declare all government taxes in sales of products and services. So as an example when you purchase fuel that taxes charged are shown clearly for consumers to see. Yes. We are paying it, we should know.

To Download the complete policy CLICK HERE

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This blog started in June 2003. Back when I was single and dirt broke poor.

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Only my 4th attempt to start a weblog. Won’t last, I just know it….

Congrats me! Still nobody visiting or reading… oh well.

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Nobody else seems to be mentioning this online, but I don’t think I am mad…

When you put down a word and the game gives you new letters “from the bag”, it is taking a look and deciding which replacement letters to give you. It isn’t random.

I’ve played enough games now to notice that when you put down a small number of letters – 1, 2 or 3 – more often than should be by chance you either get the same letters back or the same type of letters. Put three vowels down and get three vowels back.

I understand how someone could mistakenly think this was a bug if they only focused on when it pissed them off. I don’t think I am guilty of that.

For example, I just played one letter, an H. It gave me an H back. So I played that H, and I got another back. 🙁

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I forget where I read this, but basically if you come across someone on Facebook who you like, you can “follow” them. But if you are strangers to each other, there’s unlikely to ever be a real social connection, because it would be creepy to ask to be their friend.

My daughter recently changed primary schools. One of her tactics to make new friends was to take toys to school, like her La La Loopsy doll. All she had to was play with it and others who liked that kind of toy would come over and ask to play with her. She didn’t even have to say anything… Too easy!

So how can you break the ice with strangers you might want to befriend online – show them your toys!

1. Follow someone – see their updates to whatever degree their settings allow (already exists on FB)

2. Someone with followers can allow the followers to show them their toys – to be added manually rather than as part of an automatic feed:

Playlist on Spotify
Purchases
Books being read
Blog posts
Photos

3. If they like anything that was shared, they can share back or comment on what was shared, instantly creating a shared, private sharing area.

4. It would add an extra level of being a fan of someone famous, if there was the possibility that they would look at your toys and perhaps even comment back.

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