In the news

There's been a spot of current affair hysteria about Mark Latham, Federal Opposition Leader, being ill. The story is that he's having a second attack of pancreatitis and has doctor's orders to do nothing, resting completely and not having any public engagements. The drama is that he made no comment about the tsunami (perhaps he could have dictated something, I agree), and some media are near hysterical that some lady says she saw him at a luxury resort. From what I hear, the lady is an anonymous radio talk-show caller. She may be genuine, but there's been a tradition in politics that means she could also be, for example, the Office Manager for some Liberal Party person. (Latham is from the other of the two main parties.)

Assuming the 'worst' is true and Mark was reclining by the pool at a resort... so bloody what? If I had medical advice to do absolutely nothing because of a painful condition (that could become chronic if not fixed), I can't think of a better place to do it than a luxury resort. Latham isn't taking up a hospital bed just resting. He's not at home where colleagues and media can bother him, or where he might be tempted to fiddle around. A luxury resort would be the place to have all of your needs met - without even moving. Good for him.

The flip-side to the story are the comments about how John Howard has been high-profile about the tsunami. John's been everywhere, and the media have congratulated him. My response to that is that we PAY John a LARGE salary (if my reading of their documents is correct - $305,000 plus travel and super) to be high-profile. It is his job, he shouldn't get media accliam plus the salary.

Not quite in the news, but I left the room when a television piece started up about (dis)ability. And they like to stress that it's all about ability, not disability. I am fine with that as a good concept. It annoyed me, however, when the Paralympics were happening and everything was about ability. That annoys me for two reasons. One, there are stringent tests to be allowed into the Paralympics and those tests are all about exactly how disabled people are. You must be disabled to take part, and so it really is about disability. Two, if the competitors wanted to they could try out for the Olympics, if they were able enough they could compete. The Olympics are about ability.

Not at all in the news, the people who stock supermarket shelves. I was having a whine while shopping last weekend. Because things are in the wrong place, and to find the right thing you have to move the wrong things and reach waaaay to the back. Or things are stacked so they'll almost certainly fall. And so on. I was saying to my co-shopper that I should find a suggestion form and put 'Your stackers are bastards' on it. I think that does count as a suggestion if you use your imagination. Further on I had a better idea.

There are these collars that you can get for dogs to train them not to bark all the time. The dog gets a small shock, and it learns to avoid the shock and so stops barking. Plus - there are these new RFID tags, or electronic barcodes. You may have seen these on television in the form of "in the future we'll have shopping trolleys that keep track as you add items, and you won't have to scan at the checkout". Wow. The barcodes send out little signals. Supermarkets should introduce RFID tags now, but not for magic trolleys and no checkouts. They need them so they can:
1) add RFID scanners to the price tags on shelves. So the shelf knows what is being put there.
2) make the shelf send out a 'bad dog!' signal when stacking is being done badly
3) modify shock collars to hear that 'bad dog!' signal
4) put the collars on the people stocking the shelves, and one day they'll learn.