Did You Eat Your Camel Today?
Posted on December 9, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hey Oz! I was so surprised to read that the Australian Government is recommending everyone eat Camel!Australians were urged Tuesday to eat camels to stop them wreaking environmental havoc, just months after being told to save the world from climate change by consuming kangaroos.A three-year study has found that Australia's population of more than a million feral camels -- the largest wild herd on earth -- is out of control and damaging fragile desert ecosystems and water sources. The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, which produced the report, plans to serve camel meat at a barbecue for senior public servants in Canberra on Wednesday to press its point. Report co-author Professor Murray McGregor said a good way to bring down the number of camels was to eat them. "Eat a camel today, I've done it," he told the national AAP news agency. "It's beautiful meat. It's a bit like beef. It's as lean as lean, it's an excellent health food." Similar claims are made for kangaroo meat, but the rationale for farming and eating the national emblem -- as outlined by the government's chief climate change adviser in October -- is different.I don't know there just seems something so wrong about eating your national emblem! Eat camels to protect environment, Aussies told
The me, me, me generation
Posted on November 4, 2008 - Filed Under General
Hey Oz, I know we have had a simular discussion in this regard, so I thought to share what came to my inbox today, I am not so sure it's just for Americans though:The me, me, me generation
By Carrie A. Moore
Deseret News
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
Have youths in America bought into 'entitlement' mentality?
As the worldwide economic downturn begins to hit home, parents who are used to paying for everything from private music lessons to soccer team fees to cell phone bills to college tuition may have to explain to their children -- some for the first time -- why they can't continue doing so.
Reactions will vary, but one thing is certain: Many of those 3 to 30-somethings won't take the news well, even in the context that the cutbacks are necessary for the good of the entire family. Dubbed "Generation Me," a 2007 poll done by the Pew Research Center of young adults 18 to 25 showed 80 percent believe "people in their generation think getting rich is either the most important, or the second most important, goal in their lives."
Young people in American culture have largely bought into an "entitlement" mentality, according to Jean M. Twenge, associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, whose research on young people over time has brought her to this conclusion:
"I see no evidence that today's young people feel much attachment to duty or to group cohesion. Instead ... young people have been consistently taught to put their own needs first and to focus on feeling good about themselves. This is not an attitude conducive to following social rules or favoring the group's needs over the individual's."
Twenge details why she believes today's young people feel so entitled to "have it all" in her recent book, "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable Than Ever Before." Rather than focusing on the good of the whole as paramount, like the Greatest Generation that laid the foundation for their prosperity, today's young people have "never known a world that put duty before self. ... This is a generation unapologetically focused on the individual, a true Generation Me," she writes.
She uses research to bear out her claims, with data from 12 different studies on generational differences involving 1.3 million young Americans born during the 1970s, '80s and '90s. So how much does family influence and parenting play a role? "Many of the studies find that when you were born has more influence on your personality than the family who raised you," she writes.
And Twenge doesn't exempt herself from the characterizations she uses, because she's part of the age demographic she writes about.
"Since Gen Me'ers were born, we've been taught to put ourselves first. ... Television, movies and school programs have told us we were special from toddlerhood to high school, and we believe it with a self-confidence that approaches boredom; why talk about it? It's just the way things are. This blase attitude is very different from the boomer focus on introspection and self-absorption.
"GenMe is not self-absorbed; we're self-important. We take it for granted that we're independent, special individuals, so we don't really need to think about it."
With examples of corporate greed and the "me first" mentality now more visible than ever as CEOs of failed companies try to explain themselves to Congress amid news of their lavish spending and salaries, it seems young people are simply following in the footsteps of those they have been told are the ultimate in success.
"Materialism is the most obvious outcome of a straightforward, practical focus on the self," Twenge writes. "You feel entitled to get the best in life: the best clothes, the best house, the best car. You're special; you deserve special things."
She told the Deseret News that whether young people will actually change their mentality toward entitlement in light of hard times depends on how long the economic downturn lasts and the individual personalities of those dealing with it. If the pain is relatively short-lived, she said, "then you'll just get a much harder (mental) collision between expectations and reality. It will be harder for young people out in the working world," many of whom are used to changing jobs easily and expecting instant gratification.
But if things are severe for a decade, she sees the possibility of adjusting entitled expectations. Still, "it's very hard to adjust those once you're 18 or into your 20s. Some adjustment has to happen, but people can't throw it all out the window. It's hard to make that large a psychological change. Even if there's an adjustment, materialistic desires won't go away, even if the reality isn't there."
In fact, it is that entitled focus on self that Twenge believes has created the current economic meltdown. And that kind of narcissism isn't limited to CEOs, she said.
In a book she's co-written with another researcher, which is scheduled for publication next year, she found the young people surveyed not only acknowledge their narcissism but justify it by saying, "we have to be, because the world is so competitive. " Twenge finds that not only as scary but self-defeating.
"Narcissism does not help you succeed. Narcissism is what got us here (economically) in the first place. It's the aftermath of people being overly confident, buying what they couldn't afford, greedy lenders who didn't care about clients, people taking on more debt than they can really afford."
While few would deny that self-centeredness and greed are largely responsible for current economic woes, Florida State University business professor Wayne Hochwarter agrees with Twenge when it comes to the root cause of the entitled mentality. His recent study shows "much of it has to do with society and the way parents raise their special little angels, the pace of life with MTV and video games. Young people have a bit of a struggle with delayed gratification," not because they were born that way, but because their parents conditioned them, he said.
Materialism is the most visible manifestation of entitlement, but many young people who watched their parents' challenges as well, and came to the conclusion that "I'm looking out for myself. I saw mom and dad stay with the company for 38 years and I'm not going to get laid off like they did."
Hochwarter said while many adults focus on the negatives and the lack of true physical labor many young people were spared, he sees college students being "a lot more similar to other generations than different. To some extent think this whole entitlement stuff is a way of ruffling the feathers of the older generation." And attacking one's work ethic is the answer, he said.
"We're going to talk about how the younger generation is easing through life and older workers are busting it. Sure there's a bit to the entitlement mentality, but every generation has had their stuff. In the '60s it was being rebellious, in the '70s it was doing drugs, in the '80s we were materialistic."
He sees some evidence of self-centeredness, but, Hochwarter said, "it's not as big a deal as I think some think it is. I see more similarities (between generations) than differences."
He lauds the technological ability of young people and said employers would do well to put their skills to good use rather than trying to stuff them into the same mold that fit their baby boomer parents.
While the Pew poll showed how a majority of young people perceive their generation when it comes to the place of wealth in their lives, some teens say they're painted with that same brush unfairly.
Alex Harris, a teenager from Oregon who co-authored a book with his brother, Brett, said young people by and large aren't being challenged or trusted to use the skills they have. The authors don't perceive themselves as entitled, he said, but as being vastly underchallenged.
Their recent book, "Do Hard Things," describes how their parents were the impetus behind their desire to "rebel against the low expectations of today's culture by choosing to do hard things for the glory of God."
The "rebelution" they are leading on the Internet began in 2005, when they were invited -- at age 16 -- to apply for an internship with the Alabama Supreme Court. People there knew of the boys' online advocacy -- www.TheRebelution.com -- for doing hard things, and they were ultimately hired for the job.
Harris said labeling young people as entitled is a stereotypical oversimplification, though there is some truth to it. "There definitely is a sense that our generation as a whole has a sense of entitlement due to the fact that our parents have been those who have wanted to make life easy for us.
"The mentality with the whole self-esteem movement in education and parenting has been that everyone is a winner, and never to expect disappointment or failure. That can make young people think things are always supposed to be easy and that they should always succeed."
Having high expectations is a response to that, he said, "but the rebelution movement itself is those who are fed up with that mentality. We're saying no, some things are hard and that's how life is, and we grow and mature and get stronger because we believe in working hard."
Twenge agrees with the Harris boys that a cultural shift has occurred in recent decades that has created a mythical adolescence that should be free from responsibility or hard work -- and that they should have everything they want without necessarily working for it.
"Kids didn't raise themselves, they didn't make this stuff up. Sometimes people think I'm blaming young people. That's not the way it happened," Twenge said.
Boz
World’s Worst Airports
Posted on October 27, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hey Oz! We finally met live and in person! Anyway, in light of your recent account to me about the last leg of your journey home, I thought I would pass on this about the world's worst airports!Travellers wanting to avoid flight delays should head to Japan and South Korea and avoid Brazil, according to Forbes.com, which rated Asian airports as the best in the world for on-time departures. Six of Japan's airports figured in the US website's top 10 for on-time departures, with Osaka Itami International airport emerging as the world's most efficient airport, with 97 percent of flights leaving on time in 2007. Tokyo's Haneda airport, which handled 66 million passengers last year, came second with only seven percent of flights taking off late. Osaka Itami also fared well for arrivals, with just eight percent of its flights landing late in 2007. But top of the list for arrivals was Seoul's Gimpo International, where 95 percent of planes touched down on schedule.
But not all Asian airports were so efficient. At Beijing's Capital International Airport, expanding ahead of the Olympic Games later this year, just 33 percent of flights took off on time in 2007. By comparison, Brasilia International emerged as the world's worst airport terminal for on-time departures, with less than 27 percent of flights taking off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure time. Other poor choices for punctual travellers were Cairo International, with 47 percent of flights leaving on time, and Paris Charles de Gaulle — the worst placed European airport with only 50 percent of planes taking off on time. Most US and European airports had mediocre punctuality records, Forbes.com said, singling out New York's LaGuardia as the worst US airport for arrivals, with just 58 percent of flights arriving on schedule.So, by rank: 1. Brasilia International (BSB) 2. Beijing Capital International (PEK) 3. & 4. Sao Paulo Guarulhos International (GRU) and Congonhas International (CGH) 5. Cairo International (CAI) 6. Paris Charles de Gaulle International (CDG) Forbes.com Article NineMSN Article
All Time Emmy Lows
Posted on September 22, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz I guess I was one of the people who made it the All Time Lowest Rated Emmy Awards show. I didn't watch it. Not too long after the MTV Video awards where it spent the evening making fun of, and telling LIES about the Republican candidates, it was a given that political digs of the same made it's way to the Emmy's. I wonder if people are tired of the vulgar display of bias in these award shows? My guess is yes. For one thing, no matter how many people watch TV to be entertained, Hollywood seems to be out of touch with the American people. The election polls show it a close race. Don't they understand then that at least HALF of the people are considering the Republican ticket? Do they think they have that much influence? Are you kidding me? These people can't run their own lives! What makes them think we're even interested in who Lindsey, Paris, and the rest like for president? 🙂 I would have blogged this at Barb's Blog, but I already blogged there three times today. ~BozResonsibility
Posted on September 18, 2008 - Filed Under General
Hey Oz! Not only did you and I have a discussion on responsibility but so did my daughter and I. So I found some good quotations to share with you. If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders. ~Abigail Van Buren "I must do something" always solves more problems than "Something must be done." ~Author Unknown A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. ~James Allen If you mess up, 'fess up. ~Author Unknown "It's a question of discipline," the little prince told me later on. "When you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet." ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943, translated from French by Richard Howard Responsibility: A detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the days of astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911 Responsibility's like a string we can only see the middle of. Both ends are out of sight. ~William McFee, Casuals of the Sea, 1916 The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs. ~Joan Didion Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else. ~Ivern Ball The great thought, the great concern, the great anxiety of men is to restrict, as much as possible, the limits of their own responsibility. ~Giosué Borsi We need to restore the full meaning of that old word, duty. It is the other side of rights. ~Pearl Buck Why do children want to grow up? Because they experience their lives as constrained by immaturity and perceive adulthood as a condition of greater freedom and opportunity. But what is there today, in America, that very poor and very rich adolescents want to do but cannot do? Not much: they can "do" drugs, "have" sex, "make" babies, and "get" money (from their parents, crime, or the State). For such adolescents, adulthood becomes synonymous with responsibility rather than liberty. Is it any surprise that they remain adolescents? ~Thomas Szasz With every civil right there has to be a corresponding civil obligation. ~Edison Haines I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty. ~John D. Rockefeller, Jr. We have the Bill of Rights. What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities. ~Bill Maher Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. ~Erica Jong The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed. I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed. ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage When you blame others, you give up your power to change. ~Author Unknown Even when we know what is right, too often we fail to act. More often we grab greedily for the day, letting tomorrow bring what it will, putting off the unpleasant and unpopular. ~Bernard M. Baruch I don't see the point of being a human being if you're not going to be responsible to your fellow human beings. Selfishness thefts away the human and reduces you to just a being. ~Candea Core-Starke The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny. ~Albert Ellis Duty is what one expects from others. ~Oscar Wilde A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed. ~William James Mistakes fail in their mission of helping the person who blames them on the other fellow. ~Henry S. Haskins You are not responsible for the programming you picked up in childhood. However, as an adult, you are one hundred percent responsible for fixing it. ~Ken Keyes, Jr. Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him, and to let him know that you trust him. ~Booker T. Washington God has entrusted me with myself. ~Epictetus We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until... we have stopped saying "It got lost," and say "I lost it." ~Sidney J. Harris It is easy to ignore responsibility when one is only an intermediate link in a chain of action. ~Stanley Milgram When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself. ~Louis Nizer Whether or not you have children yourself, you are a parent to the next generation. If we can only stop thinking of children as individual property and think of them as the next generation, then we can realize we all have a role to play. ~Charlotte Davis Kasl, Finding Joy, 1994 Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are wide and generous. Its compulsion is upon us. ~Woodrow Wilson No man was ever endowed with a right without being at the same time saddled with a responsibility. ~Gerald W. Johnson Those who are unwilling to invest in the future haven't earned one. ~H.W. Lewis, Technological Risk, 1990 Dr. Miller says we are pessimistic because life seems like a very bad, very screwed-up film. If you ask "What the hell is wrong with the projector?" and go up to the control room, you find it's empty. You are the projectionist, and you should have been up there all the time. ~Colin Wilson We all participate in weaving the social fabric; we should therefore all participate in patching the fabric when it develops holes. ~Anne C. Weisberg, Everything a Working Mother Needs to Know, 1994 We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. ~George Bernard Shaw Some of those were really good! 🙂 ~BozKings Park wildflower festival
Posted on September 18, 2008 - Filed Under Environmentalism, General, Humor, News, Personal, Technology
g'day Boz last weekend i took a trip into Kings park to have a look at the wildflower festival (or should it be wild flower ?) I am certain you would love it, so i took a couple of photos for you to look at. I tried to show as many as possible. It was an overcast day so the light was nice, but it was windy which was a pain ( I don't know who organised the weather this year, but fine days while I work and rainy windy days for the weekend just isnt Australian). Anyway i made the most of it (I actually went a few times as it is on for the whole of September, and I will likely go again 🙂 ) and if you wish to see the photos they are on my Kings park wildflower festival pages. and seeing as you have a new camera i wll let you in on how i took the photos some were taken with my Pentax fisheye lens which focuses really really close some were taken with an old manual 50mm f1.7 lens mounted on a 2x converter with the glas removed some were taken using the same converter on my old Pentax 10-320 lens let me know which you prefer lolThe Sun Makes History
Posted on September 2, 2008 - Filed Under News
The sun actually made history this month. It had its first spotless month in over 100 years.The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted. The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity – which determines the number of sunspots -- is an influencing factor for climate on earth. Meteorologist Anthony Watts, who runs a climate data auditing site, tells DailyTech the sunspot numbers are another indication the "sun's dynamo" is idling. According to Watts, the effect of sunspots on TSI (total solar irradiance) is negligible, but the reduction in the solar magnetosphere affects cloud formation here on Earth, which in turn modulates climate.Daily Tech Article
PicLens my site
Posted on August 12, 2008 - Filed Under General, News, Technology
g'day Boz i see you had a look at PicLens isnt it a great way to look through heaps of images (or play with lol) i did try to make my gallery able to use PicLens too as i saw it had a way you could do it on their site but i think i went wrong somewhere (i know i do it a lot 🙂 ) here i got to the end and it said something about code to add to my site i did the easy version but there was no code, hmmmm, maybe it was only a try thing?? anyway i will have another go sometime when i get time unless you figure it out first and tell me how to do it 🙂 until then i will just play zooming aroung google image search lolThe Trouble with English…
Posted on July 31, 2008 - Filed Under Humor
One of my favorite I Love Lucy Shows...Ricky learns all the ways to say "ough"cultural (ex)changes
Posted on July 31, 2008 - Filed Under News
g'day Boz after our last conversation i thought i would blog it 🙂 i know i like to play with words, much to the angst of people that know me 🙂 what i didnt know is that other people that spoke foreign languages also liked to do the same thing (in their own tongue)(ok i could of guessed, but hadnt thought about it) anyway after you showing me a photo in the UE challenge where a French person played with the words open closed fixed and moving ( i used Firefoxes translation thingy to help me out 🙂 ) and my remarks to the fact i didnt know other cultures played with words and your remarks about my lack of wordly understanding (or something like that) i rememberd a post in a photography forum (not the UE forum sorry) about snow in Australia. I was amazed the people did not know we do get snow in someparts in winter (not here though yippeeee)and my asking you if you knew , to which you of course replied "i knew that" 🙂anyway this led me to search for the snowy mountains (oddly enough it is one place Australia does get snow) which then lead me to Mount Kosciuszko, Australias highest peak (2,228 metres or 7,310 ft) and then to finding out a few odd facts (or it could only happen in Australia) 1. It was spelled Mount Kosciusko until 1997, when it was corrected 2. it is pronounced Kozi-OS-ko even though it is named after General Tadeusz Kościuszko, prounounced kosh-CHOOSH-ko (we also say AL-bany not ALL-bany and Derby not Darby) 3. The 1863 picture by Eugene von Guerard hanging in the National Gallery of Australia titled "Northeast view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko" is actually from Mt Townsend even though at the time of painting it was Mt Kosciuszko, but the name was swapped with the neigbouring mountain after if was found Mt Townsend was in fact higher, this way Mt Kosciuszko is still the highest mountain in Australia (did that make sense? ) 4. however, it has now become tradition for climbers of Mt Townsend to carry rocks to the summit, in an attempt to once again make Mt Townsend the taller mountain i figure if that ever happens the names will likely swap back and Mt Kosciuszko will once again become the real Mt Kosciuszko did any of that make sense lol
Boz, how about a 3000 kilometer trip for Boab tree
Posted on July 30, 2008 - Filed Under News
all the way to Kings Park, in Perth city, from the Warmun in the Kimberley region of Western Australia a gift from the Gidjar people to the Nyoongar people, the traditional owners of the Kings park area. The boab is 14 metres high, weighs 36 tonnes and is estimated to be 750 years old. I cant remember how long it took to get here, and i have no idea about the logistics of moving something that size, road closures, police escorts, power lines, cars parked on the side of the road etc etc any way the short story is i went and took some photos of it on the weekend you can go look on my site if you wish 🙂 big boab photoDark Chocolate Macadamias
Posted on July 27, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hey Oz! I was frustrated that in my special surprise "Winter package" I couldn't get DARK chocolate macadamias for you! So, I thought, just to feel better, I would post this from my Shopping site! Mmmmmmmmmm Hersheys Special Dark Chocolate Covered Macadamias - 4.2 Oz, 12 ea
Gas Your BMW?
Posted on June 27, 2008 - Filed Under News
Oz! Have you heard this one!? No, I don't mean PUT gas (what you call petrol) in your car. I mean GAS it!In Germany; a liter of regular gasoline now costs about $9.40 per gallon. A German man doused his BMW with gasoline and torched it on Friday in protest at skyrocketing fuel costs, police said. The unemployed 30-year-old man drove the black 1995 BMW 3-series sedan onto the lawn outside Frankfurt's convention center. He then jumped out, emptied a canister of gas over the vehicle, and set fire to it, Wagner said. By the time the fire department got to the scene, the car was entirely burned out.Now he doesn't have the fuel cost problem. ~Boz 🙂
New American Idol!
Posted on May 21, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz I know you know that I've been following this year's American Idol! Here is our winner!No Use Crying Over…Spilt Oreo Cookies?
Posted on May 19, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz! Do you have Oreo Cookies in Australia? They are good and yummy and especially good with milk. A truck spilled 14 tons of them! Have a look HERERaspberry Ants
Posted on May 15, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz! I thought you'd be interested to know about the flea-sized ants that has invaded Texas. Apparently, they feed on electronics. Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food. Recently they ruined pumps at a sewage facility. Now they are making their way to Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre and William P. Hobby airport.The ants – also known as paratrenicha species near pubens – have so far spread to five counties in the Houston area. Scientists are not sure from where they originate but they seem to be related to a type of ant from the Caribbean. “At this point it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ants because they are so widely dispersed,” said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. He added that the only upside to the invasion was that the crazy rasberry ants ate fire ants, which sting humans during the long, hot Texas summers.More information HERE ~Boz
Did I Tell You?
Posted on April 30, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz! I know I've told you about Maryland's tornadoes, droughts, wicked thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, floods, rains, and even our pestilance [the 17 year cicadas], but apparently we have another event I have missed. It seems in Pikesville, in Baltimore County at night, the people there are hearing loud booms followed by flashes of light. It remains a mystery as to why this is happening, but police are looking into it. More Here and Here ~BozMayor to offer free viagra
Posted on April 29, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hi Oz! With Politics in the main headlines in the U.S., one mayor in Chile might have the key on "how to get elected."He said any man 60 years and older who wants it can have up to four Viagra pills a month after undergoing a thorough medical exam.More on the story HERE
Upgraded!
Posted on April 28, 2008 - Filed Under News
Hey Oz! Just thought I'd let you know that I have upgraded our WordPress blog to the latest and newest version! Be warned, the dashboard sure is different! ~Boz 🙂Speedtest
Posted on April 25, 2008 - Filed Under Personal, Technology
Hi Oz! I couldn't resist publishing my speed test with Cable internet here. 🙂
~Boz
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