Simon Rumble’s blog

On the weekend I flew down to Hobart for Scott's bucks night. It was held in a beautiful spot down on the Tasman Peninsula. About 20 of us camped out, drank a lot of beer and cooked up a whole pig on a spit. Great time had by all!

The pig itself was spectacular. It took a long time to cook, and we had some technical issues with the spit method (the motor wasn't strong enough) but we made it through. Succulent, tender meat and absolutely perfect crackling. There's a lot of meat on a single pig. There must have been quite a few in Hobart who had pork fried rice for dinner last night!

Flight back was a bit messed up. They ended up diverting to Melbourne to refuel after there were delays in Sydney, so we didn't get home until 22:30 when we should have been home by 19:30.

Recently spammers have been taking the tabloid approach to get people to open their emails. There's been a lot of emails with subjects like Rare nude photos of Kate Moss, Paris Hilton Charges For Pussy, Paris Hilton violated by Gypsies. I suppose they're working on the principle that if it works for the mainstream media (just look at the "most popular" article lists of most newspapers) should work for them.

One that just wound up in my spam box was headlined Obama Yells at Hillary and Bitch Slaps Bill Clinton. If it wasn't clearly spam, I know I'd be interested in that! Sounds even better than Anti-war protesters menace intrepid Faux News reporter.

Wow, looks like the NSW conservatives have achieved two excellent outcomes for the state in one. Power privatisation is off (until the Tories do it themselves, that is) and Michael Costa says he's gonna leave politics. That's great news! Seeya Costa. You won't be missed. Reckon you could take the Minister for Ethnic Cleansing, Frank Sartor and your inept boss Iemma with you?

Step 1: Issue a press release that is reported on but doesn't give enough detail for consumers to take any meaningful action.

Step 2: Don't put the press release in the "Media releases" section of your web site, and put no information about the issue anywhere on your web site, least of all the home page. This works even better when the company involved doesn't seem to have a web site.

Step 3: Wash your hands of the problem, after all you did warn everyone! Too bad if nobody can work out exactly what products have been recalled.

I suppose our recently-installed bathroom light/fan/heater is okay since it is branded "IXL" which isn't in the ABC article's list. Though I've got no confidence about anything being accurate there.