This is a really interesting topic – the reduction of debt in AFL Clubs. Why so interesting? It is an almost exact replica of the debate in greater society about the elimination of debt to third world countries.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/04/18/1145344087619.html
FOOTY: Sport in general, FREEDOM: Economics, Politics and Business
The internet is really a pretty amazing thing. Back in the late 80s when most of my contemporaries were asking their older brothers and sisters for the leftovers from their underage pissups – drinking VB and listening to Cold Chisel – I was the 13 year old at home with a 2400 baud modem, and Apple Macintosh SE/HD and an AKAI CD player filled with the newest Hip-Hop from around the world.
Even now, listening to albums like Eric B. & Rakim’s “Follow The Leader”¬ù, Ice-T’s “O.G.”¬ù or Pubic Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet”¬ù (Hip-Hop’s “Sergeant Pepper’s…”) reminds me of a late Saturday night, logging onto any one of Melbourne’s many nascent BBSs and internet portals and chatting to all sorts of early net nerds from around the world on IRC or any other communications services.
But when I hear of things like online hunting services, where people can remotely and from the comfort of their own home hunt and shoot animals via an internet remote control, robotically aimed rifle, then I can only praise the imagination of mankind and the beauty of entrepreneurship, creativity and capitalism. The internet truly has advanced civilisation.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no hunting buff/enthusiast. ¬†I can only surmise that people who would willingly track down and hunt innocent animals are themselves mostly insane or at the very least sexually deprived. ¬†And I’m as against guns as anyone can be.
Well, let me clarify that: I do get a small, evil thrill when I go to the Army stand at the Grand Prix or the Royal Melbourne Show, pick up an unloaded Steyr rifle, cock it and click.
ANYWAY, I digress. Someone is selling a service which means that even hunters and gun nuts, can have a comfy and remote way of killing wild beasts with the simple click of a mouse. I can only say that this sort of thing is a prime example of the genius of mankind. I’m not joking. ¬†I am totally against it, but it I am in admiration of the imaginative forces and the huge number of people that the founder had to convince to say “yes” to bring it to life.
Would I ever do it? Never in a million years. But if I were an incapacitated loser with a penchant for killing innocent animals, sitting at home surfing the net, I could think of not a single thing better to do with my pension than to get online and shoot some animals with the use of my trusty, cocked and fully loaded iMac. Capitalism, the profit motive and the mighty USA has brought us that option, that unique service. Some know-it-all pinko scumbag wants to ban it. No way. Let people do what they want. No matter how weird and repulsive. Or cool.
Don’t do it – but at least have a look at it¬†HERE.
FREEDOM: Economics, Politics and Business, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends
Oh how I wish I had have thought of that!
Ben Lee was performing at some affair, some concert, some event in Western Australia when a person from the crowd threw a bottle with perfect aim and trajectory which fair thumped him on the scone.
HILARIOUS IF YOU ASK ME.
Ben Lee: some spoilt little rich brat from Sydney who flew the coop on his parents and shacked up with Clare Danes in Hollywood while he wrote some dreary pseudo-pop. He released a couple of dreadfully boring albums, all the while speaking about himself in the third person, dropping names dreadfully and generally carrying on like some spoilt little rich brat Sydney tosspot. He’s probably a lovely bloke once you meet him, but when will the music journalists of this world stop putting the words “genius”¬ù and “Ben Lee”¬ù together in sentences?!?! ¬†A guy who writes lyrics as asinine as “They play Beyonc√© on the radio / and that’s the way I like it” is heralded as some ubercool dude. ¬†Yeah he’s making a post-modern commentary on modern society, propping up those weak pop acts so that he can deconstruct them again,¬ù his fans say. NO. The fact is he writes crap lyrics!
It’s like the Peter Sellers film, “Being There”, where a simple gardener who makes short and moronic comments is somehow misinterpreted; people believe he is an incredibly profound young man whose disjointed statements about the world should be interpreted as something far better, something genius. ¬†They read into Chance Gardener in the same way they read into Ben Lee.
Right after the bottle travelled on its infamous and impressive flight into the head of Ben Lee, the man of the moment cancelled his performance. More importantly, he had the following things to say to The Age:
I was in a whole bunch of shock and made a quick decision that I wasn’t going to subject myself to any more physical danger, and ended the set prematurely. But I’m OK.
Oh dear! He went on to say:
I want to play music for the whole world, cutting across age, cultural and class barriers, and I want Ben Lee shows to be a place where people can feel confident that they won’t be victims of random violence.
I’m about to vomit. He spoke of himself in the third person.
I’ve got no sour grapes against Western Australia, or Margaret River, or even the person who threw the bottle, I look forward to getting back there soon and hopefully doing a show that brings people of all types together in harmony. Life’s too short for anything less.
He’s not a genius, he’s just a very concussed boy.
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