Fairfax Journos stop work

After announcements that Fairfax plans to cut down staffing by 550 roles, including some editorial, industrial action has been taken today by journalists in the form of a strike and may continue until Monday. An overwealming majority voted in favour of striking, with most coming from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age mastheads.

Back up systems at Fairfax are supposedly in place in times of strike, although after checking both of the above online offerings, the following was published word-for-word on each (you've got to feel for the poor intern!):

Fairfax Media journalists in Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle and Wollongong today voted to stop work for three days after rejecting the company's latest offer in negotiations over an enterprise bargaining agreement. Fairfax Media Deputy CEO Brian McCarthy said: "This industrial action by editorial staff is disappointing. Publishing arrangements are in place and we anticipate all our newspapers will be published as normal over this period."

Can't wait to see the quality journalism that will come my way in the next few days! ;)

More here from News Ltd's The Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24255753-601,00.html

How to sell soap

I'm sure this short clip on how to sell soap from a couple of years ago by a company based in Germany has done the rounds already but I wanted to post it in case anyone missed out. Keep it simple stupid with viral marketing is all I will add. Oh the music is a treat too ;) Enjoy...

MMS and Murphy's Law

In the past say five years, I have probably received a maximum of ten MMS's on my mobile. In other words, hardly enough to warrant having the MMS function on a mobile. So what happens when I cross over to my new iPhone? Yes, that's right I get three in one week and can't even read them as it doesn't support this type of messaging (supposedly to stop people sharing tunes).

Being the curious person that I am, I then have the desire to see what the messages actually entailed, so head online and sit through an excruciating process through Optus fricken' Zoo to try and retrieve them, which btw does not even support Firefox as a browser! What fun. Of course what I then see in front of me, makes me question why I have wasted fifteen minutes of my life on checking them.

Anyway I thought MMS as technology was meant to be dying?! Damn laggards!

City beach proposed for Melbourne CBD

This must be one of the most stupid ideas proposed by Councillor Sneddon & Co of the City of Melbourne Town Hall Council for this coming summer. Modelled on the Paris Plage, they want to deposit up to a kilometre of sand on the banks of the Yarra to recreate the beach experience in the city.

For one, Melbourne has plenty of city beaches, so instead of polluting the environment further and faking Mother Nature, tell people to catch a tram to Port Melbourne or South Melbourne beach. Melbourne CBD is already busy, why hog foot traffic further?

Two, who would want to relax on a crowded, urban beach complete with a good dose of 'suits' walking past doing their daily lunch run? What about air quality, isn't the good sea breeze a major factor in determining the beach experience!

Furthermore when you heat up enough to brave a dip, you'll have no where to go except in the Yarra, where you'll sure to be refreshed with hepatitis.

For some things I believe you can successfully recreate an experience, others, like the indoor ski centre in Dubai, I believe are pure gimmick!

Wicked Musical in Melbourne

The Broadway musical Wicked has now been playing at Melbourne's Regent Theatre for quite some time but at $119 a pop per ticket, I've delayed organising to see it for quite a while. Perhaps for good reason though as I've just checked Ticketek and new tickets are becoming available for October this Friday the 15th of August at 12PM AEST, so might be able to secure me some good seats!

Whilst we are on this Wicked subject, one of my favourite YouTube artists, who sounds so much like a Disney character that she constantly gets accused of lip-synching, BeeBop20 covered the song Popular from the musical and it's very catchy! She also does a lot of Fan Dubs which are worth checking out.

Striving for Finger Independence

The other day whilst lost in a daydream, procrastinating or some other escapist activity, I noticed something about the dynamics of my hand that I had never have noticed before. I noticed that I could not move my little/pinky finger, towards my palm without moving my ring finger as well.

A simple biology lesson would show that these fingers are dependent on the same tendon so this is perfectly normal anatomy for most of the population with approximately 1/20 people having the 'ability', if it actually is one, to move it unaided.

Now you're thinking why did it take me this long to figure it out. Well I never had music lessons; never learnt piano or guitar, or became a game addict so never needed to analyse my finger movement. Anyway my goal now is to 'strengthen' my pinky so it can move by itself. What a goal!

If you want further clarification about what I am rambling on about see here.

Me so slack...

Sorry I'm becoming snowed under with projects here and there, so haven't had the chance to give TZ the attention it deserves. Please stay tuned!